Case story

Base Reinforcement. Eagle Mountain, UT

United States, Utah, Eagle Mountain

Case Study

Application	Base Reinforcement	Job owner	City of Eagle Mountain
Location	Eagle Mountain, UT	Engineer	IGES
Product	Mirafi® RS580i	Contractor	Kenny Seng Construction
		Date of Installation (m/y)	October 2011

THE CHALLENGE

In Eagle Mountain City, UT, new middle and high schools were planned to be built adjacent to a new roadway. The engineer on the project wanted to stabilize the fine-grained subgrade soils which showed some potential to collapse (based on laboratory testing) and also to minimize the base aggregate requirements for the roadway. This road was expected to carry heavy traffic loads and high volume due to the new middle school and high school being constructed and also as an arterial roadway for Eagle Mountain City.

THE DESIGN

Using TenCate’s MiraSpec Design Solutions Software, the engineer designed the roadway cross section and reduced the amount of granular borrow (engineered granular sub-base material) that would be required by five inches and allowed a cost effective alternative that would eliminate the granular borrow completely.

THE CONSTRUCTION

This was a new roadway! The contractor cleared and grubbed the roadway area to subgrade level, reworked the upper 12 inches of fine grained subgrade soils by scarifying and re-compacting to a minimum dry density of 95 percent of ASTM D-1557 (modified proctor) near optimum moisture. Then, TenCate Mirafi® RS580i* was laid and the new pavement section was built. The installation went smoothly and exceeded expectations during construction. The contractor pointed out that the installation of the single layer of material was much easier and quicker than the double layer system which had been used previously in similar applications and under similar conditions.

THE PERFORMANCE

The roadway is performing better than expected. The contractor and the city are very happy with the installation and performance of the material and roadway section. The engineer is also very pleased with the ease of design that the web-based software offers.