Difficult Subgrade Conditions and a Cold Fall Leads The Illinois Department of Transportation to Soil Stabilization to Get This Project Back on Track

Project Location: Sugar Grove, IL

Introduction

This two part case study examines the use of Lime Modification to solve the problems that were encountered during the construction of new road in Sugar Grove, Illinois in November, 2008. Mt. Carmel Stabilization Group, North America’s leading soil stabilization company since 1949, was hired by Geneva Construction, North Aurora, IL, to improve subgrade soils that were extremely
unstable and to build a solid working platform for pavement construction to resume in order to meet the deadline on this Illinois Department of Transportation (IDOT) project in District 1.
Poor subgrade soil conditions in road construction are commonly encountered in northern Illinois and in much of the United States. These conditions cause problems for everyone involved on a project from the pavement designer and project owner, all the way to the contractor trying to build the road. The term, poor soil conditions, is a commonly used term to describe a variety of soil types and situations. These include: weak soils, pumpy soils, highly plastic soils, expansive soils, soils with high silt content and of course, wet soils. All of these conditions contribute to the poor engineering properties of a pavement’s subgrade and subsequently, the pavement is difficult to construct and may require additional thickness to account for the underlying poor soil. There are many remediation techniques that have been used over the years to deal with the multitude of problems that a poor subgrade presents during pavement design and construction. A very common, economical and effective treatment method is Lime Modification.

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