Russia has immediate plans for higher volumes of geosynthetic material application in road and bridge construction. Despite the current active usage of geosynthetics, one of the restraining factors is poor regulation of technical requirements to materials by the valid road standards
During the last year, R & D institutes have been developing two important road standards containing requirements to geosynthetic materials depending on application:
- Russian Construction Standards and Regulations 2.05.02-85 ‘Motorway’. Reviewed. Appendix F. Recommendations for geosynthetic material selection. (Journal ‘Roads. Construction innovation’. Special edition for geosynthetic materials. January 2012. Article by V.M. Yumashev and Yu.A. Aliver). Issued by SoyuzdorNII ZAO. MINREGION order No. 266 dated 30.062012.
- GOST R ‘Common use motorways. Geosynthetic materials for reinforcing base lower parts. Technical requirements’. Developed by NII TSK.
From the perspective of road agencies, design and construction companies, the value of regulating the geomaterial requirements by road standards lies in avoiding supplies of inferior-quality geosynthetic fabrics to road construction projects. It is common knowledge that the cases of geosynthetic material forgery for state procurement have become more frequent. Therefore, the introduction of requirements to geomaterials in the road standards will ensure the following:
— compliance of the parameters of the geosynthetics supplied and ascertained by contractors’ entry quality control with the project-specified parameters, that being especially significant for the geosynthetics designed for motorway reinforcement;
— identification of geosynthetics’ optimal performance necessary for design companies to evaluate the technical and economic effect of the engineering solutions they consider;
— additional protection against the usage of short-lived counterfeit geosynthetic materials – geofabrics, geotextiles, geogrids, geocomposites, geomats (supplied to road projects by clandestine or Chinese manufacturers under the trademark of reputable producers, such as Geospan, Huesker, etc.).
Also, the existence of standards with requirements to geosynthetics applied in the road industry will simplify approval of engineering solutions by the State Expert Review Panel.
From the producers’ perspective, the value of such standards is also immense. Geosynthetics are widely used in road reinforcement. Yet, there is no common understanding of the stress-strain behavior ensuring proper reinforcement during either the laying of geosynthetics or operation of the whole motorway structure. Also, no optimal performance values are available to either producers to develop company standards and launch a product manufacturing, or testing third parties, for certification.
There is another significant issue worth paying attention to. While being developed, these standards were publicly discussed in the industry, with domestic producers of geosynthetics also taking part. Such an approach had proven successful in the international standardization practices and, finally, took off in Russia. During discussions, a number of essential quality requirements were refined by the expert community based on analysis of the European experience of geosynthetic material usage depending on application.
Gexa intends to regularly participate in discussing new standards related to geosynthetics testing methods and recommendations for application in the road industry.
