The design of sustainable infrastructure roads in semi-arid highly expansive soil is of concern to the geotechnical and pavement design engineers. The damage and distress caused to highways and roads in areas with high swell potential occur as a result of ingress and infiltration of water to the underside of light pavements. These pavements exert very low stresses on the ground. Protection of subgrade and shoulders against variation in moisture content as a result of seasonal weather fluctuation and floods can help in establishing a sustainable pavement for an extended lifetime. Predicting the response of a subgrade soil subjected to different rainfall intensity and frequencies is very challenging. The approach proposed in this study is to target a reduction of moisture exposure to prevent water from entering the systems. However, efficient protection is required when severe floods occur so as to remove water from the shoulders in a short time. The sloping shoulders are intended to guide floodwater away from the pavement. Clay-sand liners can be constructed as a dressing layer along the shoulders or within the body of the shoulder extending up to the toe of the slope or beyond. Assessment of a typical sand–clay liner was conducted. Suggested designs were based on characterization, compressibility, and hydraulic conductivity tests. It was found that stresses exerted on the liners do not pose a significant settlement hazard.
DhowianA. W.ErolA. O.YoussefA.Evaluation of Expansive Soils and Foundation Methodology in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. Final Report, KACST, AT-5-88. King Abdulaziz City for Science and Technology, 1990.
2.
ZhengJ. L.ZhangR.YangH. P.Highway Subgrade Construction in Expansive Soil Areas. Journal of Materials in Civil Engineering, Vol. 21, No. 4, 2009, pp. 154–162.
3.
ZhengJ. L.YangH. P.Theory and Practice of Expansive Soil Treatment Technology. China Communication Press, Beijing, 2004.
4.
KattiR. K.Search for Solutions to Problems in Black Cotton Soils. IGC Annual Lecture, Indian Geotechnical Journal, Vol. 9, 1979, pp. 1–80.
5.
AkawwiE.Al-KharabshehA.Lime Stabilization Effects on Geotechnical Properties of Expansive Soils in Amman, Jordan. Electronic Journal of Geotechnical Engineering. Vol. 5, No. 1, 2000, pp. 1–10.
6.
PuppalaA. J.MohammadL. N.AllenA.Engineering Behavior of Lime-treated Louisiana Subgrade Soil. Transportation Research Record: Journal of the Transportation Research Board, 1996. 1546: 24–31.
7.
Krishna RaoC. V.SatyanarayanaP. V. V.RaoR. R.Utilization of Lime Fly Ash Stabilized Expansive Soil in Road and Embankments. Indian Geotechnical Conference, Vol. 1, No. 1, 2004, pp. 465–467.
8.
StelterP.Geosynthetic Solution Applied for Chronic Slope Failure at Water Treatment Lagoon System. (A Bi-monthly Magazine Covering the Environmental Protection and Drinking Water Industry). Environmental Science & Engineering, 2005.
9.
Al-MahbashiA. M.DafallaM.Impact of Placement and Field Conditions on Hydraulic Conductivity and Lifetime of Liners. Journal of King Saud University-Science, Vol. 33, No. 4, 2021, p. 101410.
10.
NelsonJ. D.MillerD. J.Expansive Soils: Problems and Practice in Foundation and Pavement Engineering. John Wiley & Sons, Inc., New York, NY, 1992.
11.
McKeenR. G.Design of Airport Pavements for Expansive Soils. New Mexico Engineering Research Institute, Albuquerque, 1981.
12.
ThomasM. P.LittleD. N.Review of Stabilization of Clays and Expansive Soils in Pavements and Lightly Loaded Structures—History, Practice, and Future. Journal of Materials in Civil Engineering, Vol. 14, No. 6, 2002, pp. 447–460.
13.
HoustonS. L.DyeH. B.ZapataC. E.WalshK. D.HoustonW. N.Study of Expansive Soils and Residential Foundations on Expansive Soils in Arizona. Journal of Performance of Constructed Facilities, Vol. 25, No. 1, 2011, pp. 31–44.
14.
American Association of State Highway and Transportation Officials. AASHTO Guide for Design of Pavement Structures. Washington, DC: AASHTO, 1993.
15.
ERES Consultants, Inc. Pavement Subsurface Drainage Design. Participants Reference Manual for NHI Course Number 131026. National Highway Institute, Federal Highway Administration, Washington, D.C., 1999.
16.
DafallaM. A.ShamraniM. A.Road Damage Due to Expansive Soils: Survey of the Phenomenon and Measures for Improvement. In Design, Construction, Rehabilitation, and Maintenance of Bridges, (P. Moyo, P. Ooi, E. Zhai and J. Myers eds.), 2011, pp. 73–80.
17.
DafallaM.ShakerA. A.Al-ShamraniM.Influence of Wetting and Drying on Swelling Parameters and Structure Performance. Journal of Performance of Constructed Facilities, Vol. 33, No. 1, 2019, p. 04018101.
18.
WangQ.CuiY.TangA. M.BarnichonJ.SabaS.YeW.Hydraulic Conductivity and Microstructure Changes of Compacted Bentonite/Sand Mixture During Hydration. Engineering Geology, Vol. 164, 2013, pp. 67–76.
19.
Al-MahbashiA. M.DafallaM.ShakerA.Al-ShamraniM. A.Sustainable and Stable Clay Sand Liners over Time. Sustainability, Vol. 13, 2021, p. 7840. https://doi.org/10.3390/su13147840.
ZumrawiM. M.Geotechnical Aspects for Roads on Expansive Soils. International Journal of Science and Research, Vol. 4, No. 2, 2015, pp. 896–902.
22.
AhmedA.HossainM. D.PandeyP.SapkotaA.ThianB.Deformation Modeling of Flexible Pavement in Expansive Subgrade in Texas. Geosciences, Vol. 9, No. 10, 2019, p. 446.
23.
XiaoW.YanX.ZhangX.Pavement Distress Image Automatic Classification Based on Density-based Neural Network. Proc., International Conference on Rough Sets and Knowledge Technology, Chongquing, China, Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg, 2006, pp. 685–692.
24.
DafallaM. A.Al-ShamraniM. A.Performance-based Solutions for Foundations on Expansive Soils-Al-Ghatt Region, Saudi Arabia. Proc., International Conference on Geotechnical Engineering, Chiangmai, Scientific Research, Singapore, 2008, pp. 147–156.
25.
IsmailM. S. N.GhaniA. N. A.GhazalyZ. M.DafallaM.A Study on the Effect of Flooding Depths and Duration on Soil Subgrade Performance and Stability. International Journal of Geomate, Vol. 19, No. 71, 2020, pp. 182–187.
26.
DafallaM.ShakerA. A.ElkadyT.Al-ShamraniM.DhowianA.Effects of Confining Pressure and Effective Stress on Hydraulic Conductivity of Sand-Clay Mixtures. Arabian Journal of Geosciences, Vol. 8, No. 11, 2015, pp. 9993–10001.
27.
AzamS.Influence of Mineralogy on Swelling and Consolidation of Soils in Eastern Saudi Arabia. Canadian Geotechnical Journal, Vol. 40, No. 5, 2003, pp. 964–975.
28.
ShakerA. A.Hydraulic Conductivity and Shear Strength of Sand-Al Qatif Expansive Clay Mixtures. MSc thesis. Department of Civil Engineering, King Saud University, Riyadh, 2014.
29.
ShakerA. A.ElkadyT. Y.DhowianA.Swell and Compressibility of Sand-Expansive Clay Mixtures. In Soil Behavior and Geomechanics (ZhangX.ChuJ.BulutR., eds.), ASCE, Reston, VA, 2014, pp. 15–24.
30.
ShakerA. A.ElkadyT. Y.Hydraulic Performance of Sand–Clay Mixtures: Soil Fabric Perspective. Géotechnique Letters, Vol. 5, No. 3, 2015, pp. 198–204.
31.
ElkadyT. Y.ShakerA. A.DhowainA. W.Shear Strengths and Volume Changes of Sand–Attapulgite Clay Mixtures. Bulletin of Engineering Geology and the Environment, Vol. 74, No. 2, 2015, pp. 595–609.
32.
DafallaM.ShakerA.ElkadyT.AlmajedA.Al-ShamraniM.Shear Strength Characteristics of a Sand Clay Liner. Scientific Reports, Vol. 10, No. 1, 2020, pp. 1–10.
33.
ASTM D698-02. Standard Test Methods for Laboratory Compaction Characteristics of Soil Using Standard Effort (12 400 ft-lbs/ft3 (600 kN m/m3), Vol. 15.09. Annual Book of ASTM Standards, West Conshohocken, PA, 2002.
34.
ASTM D5084-03. Standard Test Methods for Measurement of HydraulicConductivity of Saturated Porous Materials Using a Flexible Wall Permeameter. American Society for Testing and Materials, West Conshohocken, PA, 2003.
35.
ASTM D2435. Standard Test Methods for One-Dimensional Consolidation Properties of Soils Using Incremental Loading. ASTM International, West Conshohocken, PA, 2020.
36.
DafallaM. A.Al-ShamraniM. A.ObaidA.Reducing Erosion Along the Surface of Sloping Clay-Sand Liners. Proc., Geo-Congress 2013: Stability and Performance of Slopes and Embankments III, San Diego, CA, 2013, pp. 1841–1850.
37.
ASTM D2487-17. Standard Practice for Classification of Soils for Engineering Purposes (Unified Soil Classification System). ASTM International, West Conshohocken, PA, 2017.
38.
SnethenD. R.JohnsonL. D.PatrickD. M.An Evaluation of Expedient Methodology for Identification of Potentially Expansive Soils. Federal Highway Administration, Office of Research and Development, Springfield, VA, 1977.
39.
KomineH.Simplified Evaluation on Hydraulic Conductivities of Sand–Bentonite Mixture Backfill. Applied Clay Science, Vol. 26, No. 1–4, 2004, pp. 13–19.
40.
AmetaN. K.WayalA. S.Effect of Bentonite on Permeability of Dune Sand. Ejge, Vol. 13, 2008, pp. 1–7.
41.
ChalermyanontT.ArrykulS.Compacted Sand-Bentonite Mixtures for Hydraulic Containment Liners. Songklanakarin Journal of Science and Technology, Vol. 27, No. 2, 2005, pp. 313–323.
42.
ImaizumiS.WataruM.TakahashiN.DoiY.Estimation of Critical Ratio of Bentonite Addition to Tuff Sand. Journal of Material Cycles and Waste Management, Vol. 11, No. 4, 2009, pp. 299–304.
43.
OsterbergJ. O.Influence Values for Vertical Stresses in Semi-Infinite Mass Due to Embankment Loading. Proc., 4th International Conference on Soil Mechanics and Foundation Engineering, London, Vol. 1, 1957, pp. 393–394.
44.
ChaiJ. C.MiuraN.Traffic-Load-Induced Permanent Deformation of Road on Soft Subsoil. Journal of Geotechnical and Geoenvironmental Engineering, Vol. 128, No. 11, 2002, pp. 907–916.
45.
DafallaM.ObaidA.The Role of Polypropylene Fibers and Polypropylene Geotextile in Erosion Control. Proc., IACGE 2013: Challenges and Recent Advances in Geotechnical and Seismic Research and Practices, Chengdu, China, 2013, pp. 669–676.
46.
CedergrenH. R.Why All Important Pavements Should be Well Drained. Transportation Research Record: Journal of the Transportation Research Board, 1988. 1188: 56–62.
47.
SteinbergM.Geomembranes and the Control of Expansive Soils in Construction. McGraw-Hill, New York, NY, 1998.
48.
ChristopherB. R.ZhaoA.HaydenS. A.MaineD. O.Geocomposite for Pavement Subsurface Drainage. Transportation Research Paper, 2002, p. 960203.
49.
ChristopherB. R.HaydenS. A.ZhaoA.Roadway Base and Subgrade Geocomposite Drainage Layers. Proc., Testing and Performance of Geosynthetics in Subsurface Drainage 2000, Seattle, WA, ASTM International, 2000, pp. 35–51.
50.
U.S. Army Corps of Engineers. Engineering and Design Drainage Layers for Pavements, Engineer Technical Letter. U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, Washington, D.C., 1992.
