EMAL's GATE ACCESS AND PARKING

The proposed project “Gate Access & Parking for Emirates Aluminium (EMAL)” consisted of design and construction of road pavement and parking facilities, wherein the existing subgrade was weak in nature with very low CBR value such that the Factor of Safety in the original pavement design was lower than the requirement. Intial proposal of ground improvement considered by the ‘client / consultant’ was deep removal of weak soil, backfilling & compaction works in order to improve the subgrade CBR value. Understating that the conventional ground improvement of soil replacement can prolong the project duration considerably since it requires massive earth works, the alternate option of ground stabilization by installation of geogrid in pavement layers was proposed by Maccaferri and was approved by the client after proper verifications and evaluation of its benefits.

Maccaferri proposed ground stabilization with two layers of bi-axial extruded polypropylene geogrid within the base & sub-base layers to reduce differential settlements and increase bearing capacity. Based on Maccaferri’s past experience, bi-axial geogrids performs best for unbound pavement layer applications due its uniformly distributed rectangular apertures that results in effective interlocking & better transfer of tensile forces through the ribs & junctions.