If your construction site is bogged down by the mud that comes with spring thaws and a little too much rain, you begin losing time and money rapidly. When this happens—and trust us, it will—we’d like to introduce you to your new best friend: quicklime!
There are two distinct types of lime treatment used at construction sites.
Drying Wet Soils
Quicklime chemically combines with water, allowing it to effectively dry wet soils. Whether or not the soil contains significant clay fractions, the reaction with water still occurs, and the heat created dries the soil even further. In fact, this reaction (often referred to as “dry-up”) happens quickly, within a matter of hours.
The benefit of lime-drying wet soil is that the grading contractor can compact the soil much more rapidly than would be possible if they waited for the soil to dry through natural evaporation. That’s why “dry-up” is one of the widest uses of lime for soil treatment!
Here’s how it can help:
- aid compaction by drying out wet areas
- help bridge across underlying spongy subsoil
- provide a working platform for subsequent construction
- condition the soil to make it workable for further stabilization with cement, asphalt, or lime/fly ash combination if no significant clay fractions
Generally, between 1 and 4 percent quicklime will dry a wet site sufficiently, allowing construction activities to proceed.
Improve Soil Workability and Strength
Lime treatment can also significantly impact clay soil workability and short-term strength, enabling projects to be completed more easily. One common example of this in the construction industry is in the treatment of fine-grained soils or granular base materials to construct temporary haul roads or other construction platforms.
Most often, 1 to 4 percent lime by weight is used for modification, less than the amount used to permanently stabilize the soil. Therefore, changes made to lime-modified soil may or may not be permanent—however, that does not render them ineffective or unimportant. The main distinction is that when modifying soil, structural credit isn’t given to the lime-modified layer the way it would be for a stabilized layer.
Lime is a low-cost solution to some of the biggest problems you face at your construction site. Man’s most versatile chemical is here to rescue you!
