Soil Waterproofing is the treatment of soils (using a nanotechnology polymer) to make the soil hydrophobic. Waterproofed soils prevent water from entering keeping the soil always dry. Dry soil is stronger than wet soil. More than 90% of road problems are caused by problems in it's foundation. Typically, water intrusion into the underlying layers cause pavements to fail. Keeping water out will solve many problems.
We at Rapid Roads understand this. Soil waterproofing can be applied on the different layers:
1. At the Surface - A waterproofed surface will minimize the ingress of water. All roads deteriorate rapidly if the foundation layers are saturated with water. If the surface is sufficiently waterproofed, it will maintain it's dry strength. Roads lose strength when it is saturated with water.
2. At the Sub-Grade - water penetration from under can also be minimized simply by waterproofing the sub-grade. Similarly, the sub-grade layer's dry strength is maintained making the road pavement unsusceptible to water damage.
3. At the Sub-Grade prior to any embankment/back fill - dry soil characteristics of the embankment (or backfill) material can now be used as a design parameter for road building. In conventional road building, selection of suitable material (embankment, or sub-grade, or sub-base material) are often limited by the materials' properties (notably plasticity). Highly plastic material does not make good foundations because it expands and contracts heavily in wet-dry cycles. This poses a lot or problems. If the same material is always dry, then this plasticity issue is not a problem. Unsuitable material can now be considered suitable for as long as these considerations are made. In summary, the wet CBR values used in road designs can be replaced by dry CBR values if it can be assured that the sub-grade is always dry. With dry CBR values, savings can be expected as the overlying layers can be expected to be thinner.