Strength characterization of steel slag–cement-stabilized marine clay mixes for highway construction

Rapid urbanization has resulted in a massive number of infrastructure projects throughout the country. Steel consumption has skyrocketed as a result of this urbanization and industrialization. India is currently the one of the world’s largest steel producers. An integrated steel plant produces 2–4 tonnes of slag for every tonne of steel produced. Disposal of such enormous magnitude of waste in an economically feasible and environment-friendly manner has become a challenging task. This paper investigates the effective use of steel making slag, a by-product of the steel industry, as a pavement construction material by adding it to the marine clay in conjunction with cement. The construction of roads on marine clay is a challenging task. On this backdrop, experimental studies were carried out on locally available marine clay stabilized with steel slag fines (10–40%) and also cement (4–8%) to study the performance of stabilized mix with respect to plasticity, compaction and strength (unconfined compressive strength and California bearing ratio) characteristics. The study found the stabilized mix containing 30–40% slag as the optimum mix which can be used for subgrade. Further, the marine clay–slag–cement mixes containing 30% and 40% slag along with 6% cement and 10%, 20%, 30% and 40% slag along with 8% cement fulfills the requirement for use in subbase of the road. The study emphasizes on utilization of industrial waste such as steel slag in the more effective manner as the sustainable construction material.