Ground Improvement by Construction and Demolition Waste (CDW) Soil Mixture Replacement

In several countries, brick and ceramic tile are the most important construction materials; therefore, associated waste generation is common in construction and demolitions. An alternative use for waste is to incorporate it into road construction. However, the biggest limitation to use it as structural pavement layers is that strength and durability regulatory requirements are not met for highways when it is used. As an alternative, construction and demolition waste (CDW) soil mixtures are proposed as subgrade improvements which require less of a thickness increase of pavement structures to meet highway standards. The results of this article present the behavior of silty soil, brick residues, and ceramic tile mixtures in different added material ratios. Laboratory evaluations were conducted and included material characterization, compaction tests, obtaining CBR values, and obtaining resilient moduli. A parametric thicknesses evaluation was performed on flexible pavement structures with different traffic conditions and CDW ratios. It was concluded that CDW material addition increases strength and the resilient modulus similarly to granular subbase (AASHTO M147-65). Therefore, the pavement thickness can be reduced, and costs can be decreased by more than 7%.