New roads in the kalahari desert region of botswana must make best use of local materials if they are to be built economically. In the absence of rock outcrops, the main sources of roadstone are the variable duricrust deposits, described as calcrete or silcrete, whichform in association with landform features such as pans or old river valleys. A study of four duricrusts for use as aggregate for surface dressing in lightly trafficked roads is described. Investigationsincluded the determination of chemical and mineralogical composition, mechanical properties, and an assessment of the duricrusts' performance in full-scale road trials. Although generally described as calcrete or silcrete, the materials commonly contain mixed, disparate calcareous and siliceous fractions. In such cases, tests on representative samples of the whole material do not readily identify the influence of the weaker calcareous fraction on engineering properties. One of the road trials was designed specifically to examine the effect of varied proportions of calcareous and siliceous material on behavior under traffic. The results of the mechanical tests showed thatwith the exception of the one silcrete sample the materials were not strong enough to meet the strict botswana specifications for surfacing aggregates. However, from the performance of the road trials and from a number of other countries where specifications are related to different traffic levels, new interim specifications were proposed in agreement with the botswana roads department. On the basis of the recommended lowest traffic category of less than 0.8 Million equivalent standard axles and 10% fines aggregate crushing test values of 130 and 100 kn for dry and soaked samples, respectively, it was considered that all of the materials investigated would be suitable for use in surface dressings for roads in the kalahari desert region. This paper appears in transportation research record no. 1291, Fifthinternational conference on low-volume roads, may 19-23, 1991, raleigh, north carolina, volume 2.
Abstract