SCHOOL OF HOUSING, BUILDING AND

PLANNING
REG 265 INFRASTRUCTURE TECHNOLOGY

PROJECT TITLE:
ROAD SUBGRADE

NAMES: SEE WEI CHUAN

MATRIK NUMBER: 143230
STUDIO MASTER: Dr Naser Ghani
SUBMISSION DATA: 2/10/19
1.0 WHAT IS ROAD SUBGRADE?

In this new era of globalization, infrastructure is an important term for judging a country

development. Road is one of the main infrastructures and it is important to the economic

development and growth and bring important to social benefits. The cross section of the road

structure is shown below,

Diagram1: Cross Section of Road

Road Subgrade is one of the main components for roadway. Road Subgrade is made up

of compacted native soil underneath a road construction. Subgrade is also a foundation for the

pavement structure which is the essential part for road construction.

The Road Subgrade act as a construction platform to give adequate support to the

pavement. For example, the load of heavy transport vehicle such as trucks and buses which

continuously loading on the pavement, will transmitted through the pavement to the subgrade

level. So that, the subgrade should be thick and strong enough in order to withstand the load

acting upon it. The heavier the loads, the thicker the subgrade is needed. The minimum

thickness of subgrade soil for road construction is 12inch. The quality of the pavement depends

on how the subgrade can handle those traffic loads.

The subgrade soil also provide stability to the road pavement in order to retain its

function under adverse climate and loading. The other function of Road Subgrade is to facilitate
drainage. This is important because it allow rain water to let which permeate through the road

pavement.

2.0 ROAD SUBGRADE IN CONSTRUCTION PROCESS

In construction industry, subgrades are commonly compacted before the construction of

a road. First and foremost, preparation of the subgrade for construction involves digging. The

purpose of digging process is to remove the surface vegetation, roots and stumps and other

foreign material. Top soil is removed to create space for pavement layer. This process is also

known as “subgrade formation”. After digging process, the subgrade which are formed should

free from debris and rocks.

Next, apply geotextile laid on the uncompacted layer of soil which is known as Subgrade

Stabilization. In addition, after applied the layer of geotextile, compact the soil surface by the

road roller. In order to ensure maximum structural support, subgrade soil must be compacted to

an adequate density to avoid deform which will lead to pavement cracks after construction. The

adequate density is specific as relative density for the top 150mm of subgrade of not less than

95% of maximum density obtain in laboratory.

Moreover, fine grading is needed to bring the subgrade soil into the final shape and

compacted as stated in contract document. Lastly, subgrade elevation should generally follow

closely with the construction plan before paving.

3.0 SUBGRADE MATERIALS

Natural soil is the main materials that use for preparing the subgrade level in

construction of road. There are 2 different type of soil which are involve in preparing the Road

subgrade which is Granular soils and Cohesive soils.

 Granular soils are usually sand, silt and gravel. Granular soils are the soil with highest

bearing strength and can be compacted easily. This can form a foundation that is stable as rock.

Granular soils are large particles and pore space between the particle are large. So that

granular soil more permeable to water and easy for water to drain off.

Cohesive soils are clays. Clay is a finely-grained natural rock or soil materials that occur

naturally. Clays are difficult to compact and have low bearing strength compare to granular soil.

Clay soils is having slow permeability to water particle because the soil particle is small and

close with each other. Clay soils are not suitable as main component in subgrade because it

expends when wet and shrink when dry. This may affect the strength of subgrade level when

proportion of cohesive soil is too high.

The ideal proportion of Road Subgrade soil is around 70-85% of sand, 10-20% of silt

and 5-10% of clay. When the proportion of soil is varying from the ideal proportion, the subgrade

soil may not produce the desired strength to support the pavement structure and may lead to

cracking of product.

4.0 TESTING OF SUBGRADE

Generally, the important factor which can affect the performance of subgrade soil is load

bearing capacity, moisture content and stiffness. Several simple testing for the quality of

subgrade soil is required in order to ensure the quality of subgrade soil is meet the specific

requirement.

California Bearing Ratio (CBR) test is conducted in laboratory. The purpose of CBR test

is to measure the load bearing capacity of soil. CBR value is obtain by measuring the

relationship between force and penetration when standard plunger is made to penetrate the soil
at a standard rate. CBR test is widely use in pavement design by determine the thickness of

pavement and its component layer. The CBR value are be mathematically expressed as:

Diagram 2: The Soil Testing Equipment

Proctor soil compaction test is a laboratory geotechnical test. The purpose of Proctor

compaction test is to determine the optimum moisture content which soil can reach its maximum

dry density. This test provides the compaction characteristic of different soil with change in

moisture content.

Diagram 3: The modified proctor

5.0 CURRENT TECHNOLOGYIES AND FUTURE TREND

The technologies related to Road Subgrade are continuing to develop because it is used

to produce higher quality subgrade. The technology nowadays mostly related to improve the

stabilization of the subgrade soil.

 The road subgrade can be stabilized by 2 different methods which is mechanical

stabilization and chemical stabilization. Mechanical stabilization involve in uses of

Geosynthetics. The example of Geosynthetics that are most commonly used for stabilization is

geotextiles. Geotextiles is a synthetic permeable textile material used to improve the soil

characteristic. The primary benefit of geotextiles is to separate between poor quality subsoil and

good quality backfill material. Geotextiles can also provide reinforcement to increase strength of

base.

Chemical stabilization is an addition of appropriate binder such as lime, cement and fly

ash into the soil to change its physical and/or chemical characteristics to form a more stable

material. Chemical stabilizer can be mixed with water and injected into a soil mass to from a

stable structure foundation. Thus, it can stabilize the area to minimize soil erosion and provide

immediate protection to prevent landslide.

In my opinion, the technologies for future trend of Road Subgrade construction will be

involving of digital earthwork system. The digital technology such as 3D terrain models able to

increase the work productivity of earthwork by 30%. Involvement of earthwork modelling

provides realistic three-dimension of ground structure to improve the work efficiency of

contractor. For example, contractor able to pre-determine the whole road construction by

knowing the actual ground condition. Thus, high quality product can be produced with minimal

of time.

6.0 CONCLUSION

Subgrade is the bottommost later for the road structure. Subgrade is important to

withstand any kind of stresses so that it should be firm and hard to have adequate bearing

capacity. Construction industry should pay more attention on earthwork construction because

careful consideration of earthwork project can minimize time taken and cost needed.
 7.0 REFERENCE

Das, B. M. (2013). Fundamentals of geotechnical engineering. Stamford, CT: Cengage Learning.

Foster, S. S. (2011). Soil properties. Reno, NV: Nevada Cooperative Extension.

AURIS REFERENCE. (2016). Soil Stabilization: principles and practice. Place of publication not

identified.

Thompson, M. R. (1977). Subgrade stability. Urbana: University of Illinois.

VERBRUGGE, J. E. A. N.-C. L. A. U. D. E. S. C. H. R. O. E. D. E. R. C. H. R. I. S. T. I. A. N.

(2018). Geotechnical correlations for soils and rocks. Place of publication not identified: ISTE

LTD.