WHAT IS SOIL STABILIZATION?
The stabilization of soils to develop superior road surfaces has been an ongoing process for millennia. The Romans discovered long ago that poor surface materials and inhospitable conditions made it difficult to move armies and goods over the paths between villages and towns.
Independently of each other, the Mesopotamians and Romans developed ways to improve roads so as to carry substantial traffic. They did this by mixing weak, crumbly soil with a stabilizing agent such as pulverized limestone or calcium. This was the first chemical stabilization of weak soils.
Fast forward to the 1960s and the US military in Vietnam needed rapid stabilization of weak soils for support of its missions worldwide. They urgently needed a stabilizer that could be used quickly without having to carry out extensive site tests that would increase the strength of the prevalent soft clay type local soils rapidly to support the landing and take-off of heavy C-17 and C-130 aircraft traffic on their temporary airfields.
They experimented with plasticizers as additives to the cement to find an amalgam that could cope with the varying levels of moisture and prevailing weather conditions. Laboratory tests eventually confirmed that they had found a base mix which increased the strength and toughness of the road surface by over 100% while still delivering the flexibility of surface the military were looking for. This was the birth of modern soil stabilization solutions.
