UTILIZATION OF CRUSHED STONE DUST AS A STABILIZER FOR SUB GRADE SOIL: A CASE STUDY IN JIMMA TOWN

Abstract

Crushed stone dust is material obtained from aggregate crushing industries. Use of such stone dust materials creates lots of problems in environment and public due to excess storage and dust accumulation. Considering this aspect an experimental study was conducted on expansive soil by mixing it with locally available crushed stone dust. This paper reflects the visionary light on the suitability of crusher dust as soil stabilizer for use in pavement construction. The role of crusher dust in improving the characteristics of expansive sub grade material is analysed. The amount of cost savings for a pavement when it is stabilized with crusher dust is also studied. In order to realize the desired objective a purposive sampling techniques which is non probability method was adopted.in order to collect disturbed soil sample at depth of 1.5m at Ginjo kebele around Honey land hotel and a crushed stone dust from aggregate production area for the preparation of different lab tests. The lab work involves sieve analysis along the consistence test to classify the soil samples. The preliminary investigation of the soil shows that it belongs to A-7-5 class of soil in AASHTO & CH in USCS. Soil under this class was poor for sub grade construction. Atterberg limit,compunction and CBR test were used to evaluate the properties of stabilized soil. The soil stabilizedwith the crushed stone dust in stepped constration of 0, 5, 10, 15, 20, 25, 30, 35, 40, 45 & 50% by dry weight of soil. The analysis of the result shows the addition of crushered stone dust improve the geotechnical properties of soil. The addition crushed stone dust reduces PI, Swelling and the optimum moisture content with an increase in MDD& CBR with an increase of crushed stone dust.A considerable amount of cost savings is also possible when the expansive clay soil is stabilized with crusher dust