Creating Wealth from Waste: Application of Waste Oyster Shell in the Stabilization of Lateritic Soils as Sub-base Material in Road Construction

The problem of lateritic soil not meeting the requirement as a base material in flexible pavement construction is a difficult task for the highway engineer. The preferred choice is to stabilize with locally available material due to the increase cost of conventional stabilizing material like cement and lime, the negative impact their production have on the environment and on the economy. This research presents the result of experimental investigation on the influence of Oyster shell powder (OSP) a locally available waste material on the liquid limit (LL), plastic limit (PL) and maximum dry density (MDD). The soils used in this study were A-2-6 and A-2-7 soils.The results show that liquid limit decreases with the addition of OSP while plastic limit and maximum dry density (MDD) increases with the addition of OSP. This implies that the OSP possesses the potential for use in the stabilization of lateritic soils. This research has clearly shown that apart from finding suitable means of disposing of oyster shell waste which constitutes a health hazard because of the environmental pollution, its use in soil stabilization for road construction will provide an economic way of turning waste to wealth.