Construction of a Road in the Black Cotton Soil using Fly Ash

This paper deals with the technique to stabilize the black cotton soil for the construction of road by using fly ash. Construction of road in a black cotton soil is a challenging task in the civil engineering field. Excessive heaves associated with swelling of expansive soil can cause considerable distress to lightweight civil engineering structures. When the B.C. soil comes in contact with the moisture, it shows considerable volumetric changes. Due to this type of phenomenon, many problems associated regarding maintenance and economic life of the highway and roadway. An attempt is made here to find out solution by using fly ash, which is a by-product of thermal power station. Fly ash becomes a main concern of worry because of its disposal problems and hazardous nature. Use of fly ash in an expansive soil gives economical and ecological solution for stabilization of sub grade of road embankment. So it is a case of “Churning waste into wealth and turning ash into cash”. Experimental works have been carried out in a laboratory, which shows that fly ash improves various engineering properties of the expansive soil like liquid limit, plastic limit, plasticity index, swelling pressure, swelling index, shear strength etc. Investigation says that fly ash is a good stabilizing agent for the construction of road in the black cotton soil.