Reduces vertical loads on soft subsurface soils, reducing sheetpile depth required to prevent toe failure
Allows unusable land to be reclaimed and developed
Substantially reduces ground movement-induced stresses on buried pipes and structures
GEOTECHNICAL
Arcosa Lightweight's expanded shale and clay lightweight aggregate can reduce the density of compacted geotechnical fills by up to one-half. This advantage, coupled with its predictable high internal friction angle, can also reduce lateral forces by more than one-half.
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Lightweight aggregate has been effectively used to solve numerous geotechnical engineering problems and to convert unstable soft soil into usable land. Lightweight fill also provides permanent non-degradable insulation around water lines and steam lines, and other thermally sensitive elements. Where thermal stability is required, lightweight aggregate provides significantly greater thermal insulation when compared to ordinary soil, sand or gravel fill. This inert, durable, stable, free-draining and environmentally friendly lightweight aggregate is extremely easy to handle and provides economical long term solutions for geotechnical challenges Arcosa Lightweight aggregate is a reliable and economical geotechnical solution.
SELECTED CASE STUDIES
ARCOSA LIGHTWEIGHT HELPS TXDOT CONTROL SETTLEMENT ON HEAVILY TRAVELLED BRIDGE
More than four years after Arcosa Lightweight expanded shale aggregate was installed on the west end embankment of the US 67 bridge over State Highway 174, the quiet performance of the product is allowing the heavy traffic on the bridge to roll on without incident.
More than four years after Arcosa Lightweight expanded shale aggregate was installed on the west end embankment of the US 67 bridge over State Highway 174, the quiet performance of the product is allowing the heavy traffic on the bridge to roll on without incident.
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The installation used 1,000 cubic yards of Arcosa Lightweight expanded shale aggregate. The Fort Worth District had struggled for many years with settlement problems on both ends of the bridge, which is highly traveled by large trucks going from rock and sand quarries in Southwest Johnson County into the Dallas-Fort Worth area. It is also a major truck route from the Dallas-Fort Worth area to south and west areas of Texas.
LWA PROTECTS EXISTING CONCRETE DRAINAGE SYSTEM ALONG NEW INTERSTATE
Designers of Corridor X, a major interchange built just north of Birmingham, Alabama, had an engineering challenge. New traffic lanes needed to go over the top of an existing concrete drainage system. The problem? The volume of fill material needed to build the area up to grade was enough to cause concerns about cracking the culvert.
“The box culvert ends up being pretty deep and it required a significant amount of fill material to get it back up to grade,” says Jeff Speck, Director of Technical Sales for Arcosa Lightweight. “If you filled with ordinary soil and normal weight fill material those loads would be high enough to cause concerns about over-stressing and cracking the box culvert.”
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That’s where Riverlite®, a lightweight aggregate manufactured by Arcosa Lightweight, provided a solution. Contractors filled three excavated areas with over 15,000 cubic yards of Riverlite®. “To reduce the weight as much as possible, they placed the product dry," says Speck. "Because it was confined by the sides of the trench, they were able to get compaction without adding water."