Contribution to the Characterization of Laterites Developed on Granitic Rock in Mbanga (Littoral-Cameroon): Significance in the Sustainable Pavements Design

Abstract

The materials studied were lateritic soils from Souza-Mbanga-Cameroon, with a view to their better use in road geotechnics. In order to achieve the set objective, the work was carried out in two phases, firstly in the field, to provide a morpho-structural description of the soil profiles, followed by a laboratory phase to analyse the samples collected in the field. The results of the physical characterisation of the soil samples show that, for average values, the water content is 9.87%, the percentage of fines 48%, the plasticity index 21.6%, the liquidity limit 50.91%, and the consistency index 1.97. These soils are classified as silty sands in the LCPC classification and as fine soils in the GTR classification. The average value of the maximum dry density is 1.81 g/cm3 and that of the water content at the modified Proctor optimum is 16.24%. The CBR index is between 1.8% and 17.8%, showing that these soils belong to classes S1, S2, S3, S4 and S5. Souza-Mbanga lateritic soils can be used in their natural state as subgrades.