Jute Geotextile – Potential and Jute Geotextile – Potential and Application in Road WorksApplication in Road Works

Sudhir MathurChief Scientist & Advisor (Planning and Policy Issues)

Central Road Research InstituteNew Delhi

Geotextile UsageGeotextile Usage Billions of square m of geotextiles is estimated to

have been used world wide last year – China using about 50 per cent of this quantity

About 10 million square m of geosynthetics used in India last year, worth several million US $

Huge potential for usage of geosynthetics in on-going road development projects

Jute/Natural fabrics also has a large potential for future road projects- but not been marketed as vigorously as synthetic

Jute Geotextile Usage – Potential Jute Geotextile Usage – Potential AreasAreas

Largest potential areas are hill roads and embankment slope protection from erosion control

Other areas are separation, filtration, sub-surface drainage and reinforcement to some extent.

Publications by IRC• State of Art Report: Use of Jute Geotextiles in Road Construction and

Prevention of Soil Erosion/Landslide. Special Report 21-2012

• MoRTH ,2013- Standard Specifications for Road and Bridge works

› Section 700; Clause 707 deals with NATURAL GEOTEXTILE

The work covers the use of natural geotextiles for control of erosion of slopes including supplying and laying the mat spreading soil and seeding to promote the growth of vegetation, as per design, drawing and these specifications.

›Natural Geotextile shall be used to control surface erosion of top cover soil on cut or fill slopes and to facilitate vegetation to grow.

Strength Requirements:

The natural fibre geotextiles made of Jute shall meet the minimum requirement as stated in IS 14715- Woven Jute Geotextiles – Specification.

To study the use of jute geotextile in the road pavement (Benefit of JGT of varying strength as an agent for improvement in load bearing capacity of the subgrade, specifically the subgrade CBR and overall improvement in pavement performance)

Role of open weave JGT as bio-engineering protective measure by facilitating growth of vegetation on the embankment slopes and earthen shoulders

DPR for 10 Pilot project under varying soil/ climatic conditions was prepared

jointly by CRRI & JMDC for 5 States namely West Bengal, Assam, Orissa,

Madhya Pradesh and Chatisgarh

However, due to certain technical and administrative problem only 5 roads

could be completed.

Use of Jute Geotextiles for Improving Performance of Use of Jute Geotextiles for Improving Performance of PMGSY RoadsPMGSY Roads (Pilot Project) (Pilot Project)

To study the use of jute geotextile in the road pavement as a drainage layer, Bioengineering measure for shoulders and earthen slopes, Improving the pavement performance and Reducing the pavement crust thickness

Pavement sections as per IRC Practice, Thinner pavement sections without JGT and Test sections incorporating different varieties of JGT

Pilot project taken up in 5 PMGSY roads across five states under varying soil/ climatic conditions

Use of Jute Geotextiles (JGT) for Improving Use of Jute Geotextiles (JGT) for Improving Performance of Rural RoadsPerformance of Rural Roads

GSB

W.B.M

PMC PMC

PMC

Subgrade

Control Section IControl Section I

W.B.M

JGT + Sand

W.B.M

PMC

Sand Bed

W.B.M

Subgrade

JGT (Open Weave)

Control Control Section IISection II JGT Test SectionsJGT Test Sections

Sand Bed JGT + Sand

W.B.M

PMC

Gravel Gravel Gravel

GSBGSBGSB

TYPICAL ROAD SECTIONS ADOPTED IN PMGSY PROJECT TYPICAL ROAD SECTIONS ADOPTED IN PMGSY PROJECT

Pavement cross section with IRC-SP-20 (Conventional section I )

TYPICAL ROAD SECTIONS ADOPTED IN PMGSY WITH REDUCED CRUST

Pavement cross section with reduced thickness (Conventional section II)

ROAD SECTIONS IN ASSAM WITH REDUCED CRUST SECTIONS

Jute geotextile as a separator

ROAD SECTIONS FROM JARBARI TO BARNIGAON AT ASSAM

Jute geotextile as a separator and turfing

Laying of Jute Geotextile on PMGSY Road ProjectLaying of Jute Geotextile on PMGSY Road Project

Laying of Jute Geotextile on PMGSY Road ProjectLaying of Jute Geotextile on PMGSY Road Project

Laying of bitumen treated jute Laying of bitumen treated jute geotextile in West Bengal geotextile in West Bengal

Control Section Without JGT – Gehlawan to PMGSY Road (M.P – 2009)

JGT Laid Section – Gehlawan to PMGSY Road (M.P – 2009)

Control Section Jorabari to UT Road (Assam – 2010)

JGT Section Jorabari to UT Road (Assam – 2010)

Distress in Control Section Rampur Satra to Dumdumia Road (Assam – 2009)

Pavement Distress in JGT Section Rampur Satra to Dumdumia Road (Assam – 2009)

Measurement of Deflection through BBD Studies at another site

Slope protection with Jute Geotextile

CONCLUSIONS

1)The performance of JGT incorporated sections with reduced pavement crust viz- a- viz control section (with conventional pavement thickness) have exhibited similar performance in terms of distress and characteristics deflection (a measure of structural strength of pavement).

2) No conclusive decision based on performance data can be made regarding the improvement in pavement performance with geotextile of higher strength.

3) The characteristics deflections in some of the test sections with jute geotextile remain more or less unchanged over a period of time. It indicate that test sections with jute geotextile structurally remain stable despite lesser thickness.

4) The pilot project studies were also aimed to find out improvement in subgrade, which can be achieved by using jute geotextile. It was expected that the inclusion of jute geotextile would absorb/ drain the excess moisture in the subgrade and would result in the improvement of soil subgrade strength in terms of CBR. Several DCP tests were carried out at different locations of the test sections. However, with two cycles of performance observation data, non conclusive decision could be made to reveal any appreciable improvement in in-situ CBR values.

5) Open weave JGT, which was used is a bio-engineering measure to pavement erosion has performed very satisfactorily. It clearly suggests that jute geotextile is very effective to prevent erosion and protecting side slopes.

6) Since the traffic generated on these selected low volume roads is not very significant, it is difficult to exactly quantify the benefits of incorporating jute geotextile based on two sets of performance observations.

7) It is therefore suggested that to arrive at definite conclusions about performance of JGT incorporated pavement sections, more roads be constructed and performance observations be taken at least for a period of five years.