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Four Georgia counties are experimenting with used carpet fiber as a way to stabilize the soil beds of their unpaved roads.
If adding used fiber to a roadbed proves to be an effective soil stabilizer, it would mean less grading for road crews and less material in the landfill - sort of a magic carpet ride for county road departments.
Details of the experiment appeared in the January edition of Georgia County Government magazine, published by the Association County Commissioners of Georgia (ACCG). The experiment tests common soil types found in Georgia, among them clay and sand. It also examines the efficiency of using specially manufactured plastic chips and plastic strips as stabilizers.
Experiment designers were careful to specify that the methods used should involve only machinery that counties were likely to have on hand or could buy at little cost.
Some of the methods used in introducing the carpet fiber into the roadbed included using an agricultural fertilizer distributor, scattering the fiber onto the road surface from a small trailer-mounted blower pulled by a truck, or spreading the material by hand.
Once the fiber is spread on the roadbed, a tiller is used to blend the fiber, or other test materials, with the loosened soil and gravel of the roadbed. At this stage, several small refinements may be needed before the final step - repeated passes with a steel roller - is made.
Results are expected in six to eight months.
(For more information, call Ross King at ACCG, 404/522-5022.)