Stabilisation of fine-grained soils with saline water

Roads and foundations along the coastal regions and deserts of Jordan often suffer different types of damages due to low bearing capacity of existing soil deposits. Such conditions necessitate the improvement of soil prior to construction in an effective way. Furthermore, the booming of highway construction over such regions, coupled with increasing demand of limited water resources, raised the cost of highway projects substantially in the country. As such, an experimental investigation was carried out to determine the feasibility of utilising saline water for stabilising fine-grained soils needed for the construction of roads and foundations. Four common soils were treated with saline water. The water used as a stabiliser was obtained locally from the Red Sea and Dead Sea while regular water was used to prepare the control samples. For each mixing water and soil type, a series of tests including Atterberg limits, compaction and unconfined shear strength were performed to identify the potential benefits of stabilisation. Results demonstrated that fine-grained soil samples prepared with saline water exhibited improvements with their geotechnical properties in terms of reduced Atterberg limits, higher unit weights and shear strength values and enhanced classification, compared to samples prepared with regular water. Thus, saline water could potentially be used to improve the engineering properties of fine-grained soils.