Stabilization of Marginal Soil in New and Existing Right-Of-Way

摘要

Mass stabilization involves mixing binding agents into marginal or contaminated soil to improve the subject material's physical and/or chemical properties. Successfully applied in Scandinavia and other European countries, the technology is now being applied in the northern latitudes of the U.S. and Canada. These regions have significant areas of "peaty" soils that can complicate construction and maintenance of rail and structure foundations. Mass stabilization can be used to improve the bearing strength of these soft soils for subsequent construction of railroads, pipelines, roads, and buildings. In civil engineering, the technology is often used to improve the construction properties such as bearing strength, of a marginal soil. In environmental engineering, stabilization is remediation treatment technology that protects human health and the environment by immobilizing hazardous constituents within the treated material. The treatment is conducted while the subject material remains in-place (insitu). Mass Stabilization is often used to accomplish both civil and environmental purposes on the same project effectively addressing marginal soil while eliminating the expense of soil removal and replacement. This paper presents the principles of mass stabilization technology, implementation in the field and recent completed railway projects. The example projects will focus on improvement of marginal soil physical properties including application to treat peaty soil during construction of high-speed rail in Finland. Bench-scale studies and full scale implementation as well as soil construction properties before and after mass stabilization will be discussed. The paper and presentation will include information on the advantages of mixing methods and binding agent delivery systems.