Year
2017
Client
RM of Britannia,
Canada
Overview
The Rural Municipality of Britannia is located to the northeast of the City of Lloydminster, Saskatchewan. A rural access road, servicing 11 residences and a commercial transport business had been in place for approximately 26 years. Its route crossed over a ‘slough bed’, an area of high-water table with multiple expanses of open water of varying sizes. The roadway experienced frost boils and seasonal flooding. The traffic included light-duty vehicles as well as the daily movement of 17 tridem fluid trucks owned by the transport company. Even underweight, these trucks created heavy rutting and had no alternate route to reach a main connecting road. In August of 2017, Paradox Access Solutions pre-graded the road surface and supplied Tough Cell® Geocell reinforcement essentially overtop of the existing road. A 25mm type A infill was applied to a 200mm depth and the finished road sloped and crowned to client specifications.
Year
2017
Client
RM of Britannia,
Canada
Overview
The Rural Municipality of Britannia is located to the northeast of the City of Lloydminster, Saskatchewan. A rural access road, servicing 11 residences and a commercial transport business had been in place for approximately 26 years. Its route crossed over a ‘slough bed’, an area of high-water table with multiple expanses of open water of varying sizes. The roadway experienced frost boils and seasonal flooding. The traffic included light-duty vehicles as well as the daily movement of 17 tridem fluid trucks owned by the transport company. Even underweight, these trucks created heavy rutting and had no alternate route to reach a main connecting road. In August of 2017, Paradox Access Solutions pre-graded the road surface and supplied Tough Cell® Geocell reinforcement essentially overtop of the existing road. A 25mm type A infill was applied to a 200mm depth and the finished road sloped and crowned to client specifications.
Challenges
The Province of Saskatchewan boasts many lakes and wetland areas in addition to prairie farmlands. Aging roadways that chiefly serviced agricultural enterprises are now taxed with the increased traffic of a diversifying economy. In the RM of Britannia, a rural road built over a marshy lowland or ‘slough’, was being literally ‘driven’ into the surrounding water by repetitive loading of commercial light vehicles as well as multiple axle transport trucks over its weakened base.
Benefits
The construction and rehabilitation of the road were completed in two days, benefiting the community by incurring little to no downtime due to the closure of the road. Traffic quickly resumed its normal pattern without interruption, and the residents now enjoy year-round reliable and comfortable access to their homes and business without the concerns of periodic flooding or continued degradation of their only access route.
Results
The residents and business operators now have a durable, reliable and low maintenance
the road that will allow them to safely and efficiently enter and exit their community for years to come.
After pre-grading the existing road surface, a separation layer of woven geotextile was installed to inhibit water infiltration into the subgrade, on top of which a 120mm layer of Tough Cell® geocell webbing was applied. The cells were infilled with 25mm gravel to a 200mm depth.
Total area: 360m x 8m
Product(s): 330-120 Type D Tough Cell® geocells; 200ST Woven Geotextile
Infill: 200mm Type A 25mm gravel
Completion: Capped with Type 33 road crush
Site restoration: existing 500mm culverts upgraded to 600mm; the crowned road to customer specifications of 3% or greater.
