CASE STUDY - THORNTON ROAD GEOGRID

Case Study: Thornton Road Reconstruction Project
Owner: Pinal County
Installer: Grey Mountain Construction
Supplier: GeoSupply
Problem: Due to weak / soft subgrade soils, the proposed roadway design required excessive and costly asphalt and aggregate base course materials.
Solution: Construct reinforced pavement structure using Synteen SF12 high-strength geogrid.

Thornton Road, a key commercial access road from I-10 south of Phoenix, was experiencing failure due to deep rutting. With heavy wheel load traffic to a Walmart distribution center, poor subgrade soils (R value 30) and high traffic volume (ESAL requirements approaching 1,000,000) unreinforced pavement design options required costly and excessive asphalt and aggregate materials.
Pinal County was seeking cost-saving and performance enhancing solutions for the reconstruction project. Synteen Technical Fabrics hired Earth Improvement Technologies to prepare an alternate pavement design based on AASHTO 93 design guidelines. With the inclusion of Synteen SF12 geogrid, section reductions in asphalt of 10% and aggregate base reductions of 25% were achieved while providing the same pavement structural number as the original design.

In addition to providing affordability and high tensile strength, the contractor chose the “zero waste” option afforded by Synteen SF12 custom roll dimensions with roll width options ranging from 12’ to 17’.