A report which promotes the advantages of soil stabilisation has been produced by Bitpave, the British Cementitious Paving Associaton.
Britpave say that the use of soil-stabilised lime modified fills to improve ground support beneath commercial developments is well known, house-builders have as yet to accept it.
Soil stabilisation used to improve soil for the Gifford Lea retirement village in Tattenhall, Cheshire and using different ground techniques supported by performance specification and validation may well prove a cost-effective solution for residential development.
The process of soil stabilisation is carried out on-site therby providing a cost effective alternative to dig and dump. Soil stabilisation uses cementitious binding materials such as cement, lime, fly ash or ground granulated blast furnace slag (GBBS) to strengthen poor soils and also treat any contaminents on site to provide a non-toxic soil, can contain potential leaching and produces a strong engineered material that can be built on.
Soil stabilisation requires good ground investigation, soil sampling together with laboratory trials to find the right binder mix, and good site control.
Explaining how this technique can be used on brownfield land reducing pressure to build on greenfield sites, and by re-using site-based materials can result in reduced lorry movements and landfill ,can be seen in this report – ‘Environmental benefits of soil stabilisation’.