In-situ and laboratory investigation of modified drilling waste materials applied on base-course construction

This study focuses on in-situ and laboratory evaluation of modified drilling waste materials (MDWMs) applied on base course construction. Cement treated drilling waste materials have been used on a limited basis for full-depth base repair on Texas Department of Transportation (TxDOT) low volume roads. A road inspection was made of full-scale county roads that were constructed with the MDWMs. Field test results measured by the falling weight deflectomer (FWD) showed reasonable in-situ strengths. The MDWM section had stiffness values similar to those typically observed for newly constructed flexible bases. The old, in-service flexible base adjacent to the MDWM section exhibited values half those of the MDWMs. Cores removed from the field also had significantly higher strength values than the lab-molded samples. Moreover, the other non-TxDOT low volume county roads using MDWMs exhibited good field performance. From this observation, it is concluded that this material clearly has some unique engineering properties which has the ability to gain strength with time though weak initially and there is the potential applicability used in the low volume roadway.