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APPLICATION OF FIBERS FROM SABAI GRASS IN CONSTRUCTION OF SUBBASE OF ROADS IN CONJUNCTION WITH SANDS

In many parts of the world, large amount of construction of roads are going on. Such constructions require massive quantity of good brickbats for subbase in conventional construction of road. But the production of bricks is being limited due to non-availability of suitable soils and dearness of energy. In view of this there is growing need for use of alternate materials for making sub base in place of brickbats. In this context, use of sand as an alternate material may be advocated. However, to improve the strength of such laid sands, further, random mixing of some Geotextile fiber are also suggested. Natural fibers from sabai grass are biodegradable, ecofriendly and are available in abundance in many countries at very low cost. It can be used as additive material in the sub base course employing sand to result possible increase in strength and decrease in deformability. A systematic experimental program has been undertaken for improvement of compactibility of sands, and increase in California Bearing Ratio (CBR) of such laid sand layers on mixing these geo-natural fibers in various proportions and lengths. The present investigation highlights the efficacy of construction of sub-base with sand and Sabai grass fibers composite system, as alternate material of construction.