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Influence of geosynthetic reinforcement on unpaved road performance after surface maintenance

A great part of the world’s road network consists of unpaved road. They allow the transpor-tation of several important products from agriculture, mining, forestry and other industries, besides providing access to inhabitants of isolated communities to services in larger cities. Despite its importance, overloading and poor maintenance services may cause frequent traffic disruptions in these roads with im-portant economic losses and social impacts. Geosynthetic reinforcement can improve the performance of unpaved roads on weak subgrades, increase its life and reduce maintenance costs. This paper investigates the performance of unpaved roads on compressible subgrade using a large scale equipment under labora-tory conditions. Cyclic load was applied to the road to simulate traffic conditions. Different geogrid rein-forcements were used at the fill-subgrade interface. After a target rut depth has been reached, the road surface was repaired and a new loading stage was applied. This aimed at assessing the influence of the presence of the reinforcement on the behaviour of the road after surface maintenance. The breakage of the fill material (gravel) was also quantified after each test. The results obtained showed the significant influ-ence of the reinforcement on road performance as well as on the reduction of breakage of fill material particles in comparison with the unreinforced case.