Combined Effects of Molasses-Lime Treatment on Poor Quality Natural Gravel Materials Used for Sub-Base and Base Course Construction

At the time of industrial development, the production of large amounts of wastage required proper disposal. To reduce the disposal problem, utilization of wastage in construction works is a very important aspect. The reuse of industrial waste had gained high momentum for achieving sustainable waste management locally and globally. Keeping this in mind, research carried out to assess the utilization of molasses, lime, and molasses-lime for improving natural gravel for sub-base and base course construction from the Jimma Jiren quarry site. The natural gravel from this quarry site is known to have poor quality since it did not satisfy the ERA standard specification for sub-base and base course construction. To use Jiren natural gravel as a sub-base or base course construction material, it is necessary to improve its engineering properties. The laboratory test matrix in each test plan included variations in additive type, additive content, and curing period. It was established 8% cane molasses by weight of dry soil as the maximum for effective stabilization of natural gravel for sub-base construction, but not suitable for a base course layer. Results indicated that the natural gravel specimens from the Jiren quarry site stabilized with lime provided higher CBR values than molasses used alone. On the other hand, replacing 50% of lime content with molasses indicated better results than the performance of either individual additive. Therefore, the natural gravel blended with the molasses-lime combination is much better when it used for sub-base and base course construction to treat such an inferior quality of natural aggregates

Improving the Properties of Clay Soil by Using Laterite Soil for Production of Bricks

Nowadays, the utilization of locally accessible materials is a crucial stage for sustainable, economical building material on the earth’s surface. Within them, brick is one of the commonly used construction materials around Jimma town due to the availability of clayed soil. Nevertheless, brick produced by small micros unskilled enterprises rather than by traditional methods, its quantity was small, and its quality was unsatisfactory because it can easily break, and it has high water-absorbing conduct. The purpose of the investigation was to improve the properties of clayed soil properties by using laterite soil for the manufacturing of bricks for masonry units. In order to achieve this, research used non-probability sampling techniques to collect samples in Jimma area. Then, the collected samples prepared for different laboratory tests and by partially replacing literate soil by 5 %, 10 %, 15 % and 20 % on a clayed soil in order to get optimum property by different mix ratio for different laboratory tests results indicated showed that the lightweight bricks could be made from the approach of this study without any deterioration in the quality of bricks