Raw marine dredged sediment's valorization in road techniques: case of Bejaia‘s airport sediment

The accumulation of sediment in stratified layers at the bottom of watercourses leads to siltation, often requiring dredging to uphold the navigability and safety of ports and waterways. However, managing dredged sediment entails significant challenges, particularly in terms of costs and environmental impacts related to storage or disposal. To tackle these challenges, the development of innovative and cost-effective strategies for repurposing these materials is of paramount importance, mainly in fields recognized as the most resource-intensive, like road construction. This study focuses on characterizing sediment collected from Béjaïa's National Airport to ascertain its potential applicability in road construction. A thorough series of tests was performed on untreated sediment samples to evaluate their chemical, physical, and mechanical properties. These tests assessed the material's load-bearing capacity and settlement behavior using analytical methods and numerical simulations fulfilled using PLAXIS 2D software across two configurations, aiming to identify the optimal application of this material.