Performance evaluation of construction and demolition waste aggregates as an alternative base course material in highway construction

ABSTRACT Construction and demolition (C&D) wastes are found to be the main source of unwanted materials produced worldwide. Due to the insufficient amount of high-quality fresh limestone aggregates, construction and demolition waste are used as an alternative base course material for highway construction. The stabilization of C&D recycled aggregate waste with ordinary portland cement (OPC) has been repeatedly used by the researchers to improve the performance of the base course in highway construction. The studies related to the geosynthetic-reinforced C&D waste are limited. In this study, the efficacy of geosynthetics reinforced bases was evaluated within the base course with three different base thickness (120, 150 and 200 mm). Two different infill materials, namely, C&D waste and limestone aggregates were used and plate load tests were conducted to simulate traffic loading over geosynthetic reinforced and unreinforced unpaved test sections. This study aims to present the results in terms of load versus deformation and load versus vertical stress distribution. It was observed that the C&D waste improvement factor is more than virgin aggregates (limestone aggregates). Due to the inclusion of geocell and geotextile, the average bearing capacity improvement factor enhances by 62% and the vertical stresses decrease significantly.