Strength Characteristics of Lead and Hydrocarbon Contaminated Lateritic Soils Stabilized with Lime-Rice Husk Ash

This study investigates the strength characteristics of the lead and hydrocarbon contaminated lateritic soil stabilized with lime-rice husk ash, a binder additive combined at a ratio of 1:2 Lime: Rice husk ash. The artificially contaminated Akure lateritic soil was stabilized with varied degrees of 5 and 10% of the binder by weight of the contaminated soil samples. Strength characteristics tests which include unconfined compressive strength and direct shear tests were then conducted on the soil-contaminant-binder mixes. The 10% binder addition produced the highest percentage increase in the strength characteristics which were in the range of 31.1%- 47.7% and 41.4%-70.0% for the unconfined compressive strength on lead and naphthalene contaminated samples respectively. The influence of the contaminants and binder additives on the allowable bearing capacity (qa) of the lateritic soil was inferred from the trend observed in the unconfined compressive strength (qu)