VHE continue to use their experience to innovate cement stabilisation works and reduce the use of aggregate import and use on site
Cement stabilisation is a well proven technique to increase the geotechnical properties of soils and in particular the strength and durability of materials.
VHE have been actively promoting the use of cement stabilisation of site won material with our clients as an alternative to importing quantities of aggregates, whether first generation or recycled, and as both temporary or permanent solutions.
A large focus has been on the use of this method as the construction of temporary site compound areas and access routes as these are generally the first areas to be constructed and the last areas to be removed.
The benefits of this method are as follows:
A recent example of this was on a project in South Yorkshire where cement stabilisation was used to construct both the site compound areas and permanent site access roads and car parking.
For the site compound an area of 6000m2 was constructed by adding cement to the site won sand material. The cement was rotavated and compacted using in-house plant to a depth of 200mm to stabilise 1200m3 of material. This replaced the requirement to import 2600 tonnes of aggregate and removed the need to dispose of this material once the contract was completed.
Permanent works included 15,500 m2 of car parking and access roads. Given a working depth of 200mm this operation saved a minimum of 3100 tonnes of quarried product. Overall this project saved 5700 tonnes of import and approx. 285 HGV wagon movements.
VHE in-house resources undertake site investigation works, geotechnical soil analysis and through bench scale trials to ensure appropriate methods and additives are scientifically calculated to deliver the required end product based on the geotechnical properties of the existing subsoils in relation to the proposed end use.