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LVM Uses Innovative Geosynthetic Materials for the Construction of Forest Roads

To ensure the bearing capacity of the road in peaty soil, JSC “Latvia's State Forests” (LVM) has used an innovative material – a composite of extruded polymer geogrid and geotextile – in the reconstruction works of the forest road “Skrīveru jaunais ceļs” under the frost resistant layer. The completion of construction works, and the commissioning of the more than 8 km long forest road are planned for the beginning of October this year.

The material was laid in those sections of the road where the existing road surface was on unstable soils with a mixture of peat.

“During the design work of the forest road, as part of the geotechnical investigation, it was found that the embankment of the existing road contained peat soils mixed with stumps in several sections. In these stages, to ensure the bearing capacity of the road, it was necessary to either replace the soil or provide additional measures to strengthen the road structure. To ensure that the main forest road after reconstruction would be usable all year round (except for spring and autumn rainy periods), the author of the construction design planned to use an innovative geosynthetic material in these stages – a composite of extruded polymer geogrid and geotextile.

This construction product is created by industrially gluing two geosynthetic materials – geogrid and geotextile. Such a construction product provides the function of separating and strengthening the road surface, as a result of which the expected carrying capacity of the road is achieved with less consumption of building materials. The construction process itself is relatively simple, because the two separate construction products do not need to be embedded in the road surface,” says Ivars Caune, LVM Forest Infrastructure Forest Road Expert.

The total length of the “Skrīveru jaunais ceļš” forest road is 8.236 km. The construction works at the construction facility are carried out by SIA “Rubate”, while the design works for this reconstruction construction facility were carried out by SIA “Vertex projekti”.