Suitability of Local Soil for Low Volume Road Construction: The Case Study of Niger Delta Region, Nigeria.

Authors

  • S. D IYEKE

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.3759/joge.v5i3.1360

Abstract

This work describes the suitability of soils located in the Niger delta region of Nigeria for road construction. The soil classification tests as well as tests to determine the moisture-density relationship and shear strength tests were carried out in accordance with British Standards. Also, additional soil data in these localities were obtained from construction and consultancy firms. A total of eighty-three (83) soil data were collected and used for analysis. The sieve analysis indicates the absence of coarse sand grains and gravels, while the plasticity chart shows that most of the soils falls within the non-plastic and low plasticity regions. The range of the angle of internal friction and cohesion obtained from the tests are 2 to 430 and 3 to 82 KN/m2 respectively.  These soil properties are below specified limits for base and sub base materials and will require improvement is a necessity for road construction in the region.

References

Abam, T.K.S., (2016). Engineering geology of the Niger delta. Journal of earth sciences and geotechnical engineering 6(3)65-89

Adeyemi, G.O., (2002). Geotechnical properties of lateritic soils developed over quartz schist in Ishara area, southwestern Nigeria. Journal of Mining and Geology 38:65-69

Allen, J.R., (1964). Nigerian continental margin, Mar. Geol., 1: 289-332,1964.

Allen, J.R., (1965). Coastal geomorphology of eastern Nigerian beach ridge barrier islands and vegetated tidal flats, Geol. Mijnbouw, 44(1), pp. 1-21,1965.

Allen, J.R. and Wells, J.W., (1962). Holocene coral banks and subsidence of the Niger delta, J. Geol., 70, pp. 381-397.

Akpokodje, E.G., (1986). The geotechnical properties of lateritic and non-lateritic soils of southeastern Nigeria and their evaluation for road construction. Bulletin of the International Association of Engineering Geology 33:115-121

Akpokodje, E.G., (1987). The engineering – geological characteristics and classification of the major superficial soils of the Niger delta. Engineering Geology 23:193 -211

Akpokodje, E.G., (1989). Preliminary studies on the geotechnical characteristics of the Niger delta subsoils. Engineering Geology 26:247-259

Biswal, D.R., Sahoo, U.C and Dash, S.R., (2016). Characterization of granular lateritic soils as pavement material. Transportation Geotecnics,6, 108-122

British Standard (BS) 1377 (1990) Method of testing of soils for civil engineering purposes. British Standard Institute

Deb, K., Sawanti, V.A. and Kiran, A.S., (2010). Effects of fines on compaction characteristics of poorly graded sands. International Journal of Geotechnical Engineering 4:299-304

Garg, S.K., (2009). Soil mechanics and foundation engineering. Khana publishers, New Delhi

Kantey, B.A., (1971). Terrain evaluation – A problem in whole engineering. The Civil Engineer. pp. 407-411

Leton, T.G. and Omotosho, O., (2004). Landfill operations in the Niger delta region of Nigeria. Engineering Geology 73:171–177.

Mitchell, M.F., Petzer, E.C.P. and Van der Walt, N., (1979). The optimum use of natural materials for lightly trafficked roads in developing countries, Trans. Res. Record 702, 155-63

Ola, S.A., (1980). Mineralogical properties of some Nigerian residual soils in relation with building problems. Eng Geol 15:1-13

Omotosho, O. and Eze-Uzomaka, O.J., (2008). Optimal stabilization of deltaic laterite. Journal of the South African Institution of Civil Engineering vol. 50(2):10–17

Short, K.C. and Stauble, A.J., (1967). Outline of the geology of Niger delta. Am Assoc Petrol Geol Bull 51:761-779

Wahab, K.A., (1997). Highway geotechnical properties of a lateritic soil along Ile-Ife––Ibadan road, Southwestern Nigeria. Unpublished B.Sc (civil Engineering) project, Obafemi Awolowo University, Ile-Ife, Nigeria

Williams, D.J., (2000). Assessment of embankment parameters. In: Proceedings slope stability in surface mining, SME, Denver, CO, pp 275–284

Younoussa, M., Karfa, T., Raguilnaba, O., Kalsibiri, K., Philippe, B., Hugues, T.J., (2008). Geotechnical, mechanical, chemical and mineralogical characterization of a lateritic gravels of Sapouy (Burkina Faso) used in road construction. Construction and Building Materials 22:70–76

Downloads

Published

2018-11-02

Issue

Vol. 5 No. 3 (2018)

Section

Research Article

License

Declaration and Copyright Transfer Form

(to be completed by authors)

I/ We, the undersigned author(s) of the submitted manuscript, hereby declare, that the above manuscript which is submitted for publication in the STM Journals(s), is not published already in part or whole (except in the form of abstract) in any journal or magazine for private or public circulation, and, is not under consideration of publication elsewhere.

  • I/We will not withdraw the manuscript after 1 week of submission as I have read the Author Guidelines and will adhere to the guidelines.
  • I/We Author(s ) have niether given nor will give this manuscript elsewhere for publishing after submitting in STM Journal(s).
  • I/ We have read the original version of the manuscript and am/ are responsible for the thought contents embodied in it. The work dealt in the manuscript is my/ our own, and my/ our individual contribution to this work is significant enough to qualify for authorship.
  •  I/We also agree to the authorship of the article in the following order:

Author’s name                                    

 

1. ________________

2. ________________

3. ________________

4. ________________

 

We  Author(s) tick this box and would request you to consider it as our signature as we agree to the terms of this Copyright Notice, which will apply to this submission if and when it is published by this journal.