THE PROBLEM
The Royal Engineers were tasked with constructing a parking area for both light and heavy vehicles in preparation for the ground offensive in Kosovo. The designated area was underlain by very soft ground. The only available fill was locally won rounded river gravel.
THE SOLUTION
Tensar geogrids were used to mechanically stabilise the river gravel and to minimise the thickness of aggregate required. When tracked vehicles performed static turns they did not “dig in” as much as usual. This was due to geogrid interlock and the resulting lateral confinement of the stone.
PROJECT DESCRIPTION
Tensar geogrids have been used by the Military since the Falklands conflict in 1982, when Tensar’s ground stabilisation geogrids were used for the reconstruction of the runway at Port Stanley. The Royal Engineers Military Plant Foreman are trained road construction specialists and faced with building a vehicle park over poor ground in Kosovo for both light and heavy military vehicle traffic, they decided to construct two sites. The first was to be used by light vehicles only, consequently only a light weight Tensar geotextile was used in the construction. The second was to be used by heavy vehicles, some of which were tracked.
Wary of the site constraints of soft ground, combined with a rounded granular fill, the Royal Engineers Designers decided upon using Tensar geogrid reinforcement, which was available in theatre. This was used to mechanically stabilise the fill and so minimise the fill thickness and overcome problems caused by slewing plant. When a tracked vehicle performs a static turn, the effect is usually that the gravel gets pushed sideways and has to be replaced and re-compacted. The effect of the grid interlock on this site meant that tracked vehicle static turns did not cause as much damage and so lost time in replacing and re-compacting the fill was minimised. The Royal Engineers were pleased with the performance and confirmed that a problem usually encountered on small sites was solved by using the grid.
