PAVEMENT STABILIZATION USING PP BIAXIAL GEOGRID BETWEEN GRANULAR SUBBASE AND WMM LAYER TO REDUCE CRUST THICKNESS AT MUNDRA PORT, GUJARAT

Mr. Manish Barot & Mr. Deeraj Reddy, TechFab India Industries Ltd. 


Project Brief:

Mundra Port, situated on the northern coast of the Gulf of Kutch in the Kutch district of Gujarat, India, holds the distinction of being the country's largest privately operated port. Initially under the management of Mundra Port and Special Economic Zone Limited (MPSEZ), a subsidiary of the Adani Group, it subsequently underwent expansion and now falls under the purview of Adani Ports & SEZ Limited (APSEZ), overseeing the operations of multiple ports. During the fiscal year 2020-21, Mundra Port efficiently managed the handling of a significant cargo volume totalling 144.4 million tonnes.

Problem:

The soil present near Mundra port is marine clay that comes soft soil category. This type of soil is usually associated with high differential settlements and instability, leading to overall failure of the pavement structure within its service life. Considerable failure could occur even with light loads and it shows flat or featureless surface. This kind of soil is considered as problematic due to the existence of high moisture content and usually exists as slurry with noticeable percentage of expandable clay minerals.

Solution:

To construct a flexible pavement over soft soil, it is necessary to use a higher thickness of pavement to support heavy loads. To address this issue, the authority has decided to use modern technology to stabilize the pavement. In this project, a biaxial geogrid made of polypropylene material called Techgrid PP Biaxial 30/30 Geogrid is used between the WMM and GSB layers to reinforce the pavement. The Geogrid will interlock the aggregate particles and increase the modulus of the respective layer. Further, this increase in the modulus of aggregate layers will lead to improvement in service life of pavement and better distribution of loads on to the subgrade.