Lignins As Stabilizing Agents for Northeastern Iowa Loess

One of the common problems in highway .and airport construction faced by engineers all over the world is the scarcity of suitable materials for base and subbase construction. Lately, there has been such an increase in traffic on highways and airfields that the problem of suitable base and subbase design can no longer be ignored. Engineers have been striving hard to find ways and means to solve this problem. One solution lies in the utilization of locally available materials. Since soil is the most plentiful of available materials, it has been chosen by engineers and scientists to do the job. Unfortunately, not every soil in its original condition can be utilized as an engineering material without modification of its properties. For this reason, emphasis is being placed on finding ways to make suitable construction material out of unsatisfactory soil; the art and science of doing this \u27is called soil stabilization. There are several methods of stabilizing soils. One of such methods is the use of admixtures. Admixtures such as Portland cement, bituminous material, lime-fly ash, lime, and lignins are a few of the possibilities. Since 1947 the Iowa Engineering Experiment Station has been conducting research on soil stabilization. Various kinds of admixtures have been investigated during this period. This report presents the work done to date with lignins as stabilizing agents for northeastern Iowa loess and loess derived soil