MODOT picks the right project for their first experience with FDR

Mt. Carmel Shows MODOT what is possible with FDR

(Cass County, MO; Sep. 2009)

In any given year, Mt. Carmel Stabilization Group will perform soil stabilization applications on hundreds of projects ranging from highway construction, airport runways, subdivision roads, commercial building pads, drying operations on mass grading projects and many other miscellaneous project types. These projects can range in size from 1,500 to several million square yards. Each project presents a unique situation and subsequent challenges to success. This particular project is the rehabilitation of a 6 mile stretch of Route Y in Cass County, Missouri. This project is the first large scale Full Depth Reclamation project for the Missouri Department of Transportation.

The Problem - An Aging Quarry Haul Road Gives Way

In a typical day, this 6 mile stretch of Route Y in Cass County near suburban Kansas City sees plenty of speedy motorists and with a large stone quarry on the north end, it receives a heavy dose of fully loaded stone trucks. Poor subgrade soil conditions will eventually reveal themselves on the majority of pavements. On Route Y, heavy loads, a poor subgrade, combined with the age of the road, all contributed to its severe distress and current state of disrepair. Years of overlays and patching efforts had left some areas of the road with over 17” of asphalt pavement. The majority of the roadway was 10” - 14” of largely failed asphalt pavement with very weak, fat clay subgrade soil underneath. To truly solve the problem, the issues below the surface must be addressed. Typically, an agency will choose a mill and fill option that simply delays the inevitable reflective cracking and rutting that will occur on this roadway. MODOT’s budget makes total reconstruction of this low volume road unfeasible. MODOT had been researching FDR and had previously done one project that used FDR for shoulder repair. To MODOT, this job seemed like a good fit to try FDR on a larger scale.

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