ArmorGrid: Culvert Rehabilitation | Case Study
The Clients
The Nation Municipality.
Vertical
City, municipal, private & commercial road-works projects.
The Technology
This case study presents the results and the benefits of using ArmorGrid, in a layered fashion and its application to enhance the stability of pavement structures. Geocell- reinforced products (AG30, AG40 and AG50) are used to investigate their stress reduction mechanisms and their effectiveness as stress bridging elements above buried utilities and to control the total settlement of the ground and the reduction of the deformations and transferred stress.
Effect of Using a Geocell Layer on the Ground Surface Settlement
This section presents the effect of using geocells on the ground surface settlement and the ultimate bearing capacity. The figure above shows the stress settlement relationships for extreme cases of dense and weak native soils, respectively.
In addition, this figure present a comparison between the settlement performance of reinforced and unreinforced trenches. It can be seen that the use of a Geocell layer improved the behavior of the backfilled trenches by increasing the ultimate bearing pressure by up to approximately 85%. The ultimate bearing pressure for unreinforced soil is 179KPa however, the ultimate bearing pressure for reinforced soils at 10mm settlement is 281(AG30), 313(AG40) and 338(AG50) KPa for Geocells, respectively.
Client Feedback:
✦ What are you looking for in a product?
"We look for a product that will give us all-around support, for example, give the pavement structure more strength to make it so it doesn't move under heavy loading because this is farmland and most of the traffic is massive combines, tractors and 18 wheelers"
✦ Have you experienced any challenges before purchasing our product?
"Yes! Before we started implementing ArmorGrid we faced challenges with our culverts, they were unable to survive the freeze/thaw cycle and the pavement structure did not hold up during the spring...what we call the half-load season"
✦ What makes our product stand out?
"ArmorGrid stands out because all of the problems I mentioned before have magically disappeared... we don't really know how it works...technically speaking, but it's doing the job and has been for over 5 years now. Culverts that used to be changed on a yearly basis haven't been touched since."
✦ Why did you make the decision to choose our product?
"Well, the simple answer is because it works! Also, we can reduce the amount of imported gravel we use by about 60% The snowshoe effect it creates and the fact that it traps the gravel in the tiles make it so we don't have to open a wide trench and taper it, like a V shape, which actually saves us time too, which again, saves us more money."
✦ What benefits have you gained from using our product?
"We gain by saving money on stone and labor. We save on resources as well, as I mentioned, culverts had to be changed yearly before, now they are still performing well, ArmorGrid keeps them (culverts) level and prevents sinking during the half-load season. Because the culverts don’t sink or heave my asphalt stays nice so I don't have dips or potholes to go fix.
✦ Would you recommend this product to other public works departments?
" Absolutely, no questions asked, if you aren't using this on your roads you are wasting time and money. Not to mention the excellent service we get from your team as well"
