Perceptive travelers looking closely at the roadwork on Road 27 just outside of Morden as they pass by on Highway 3, may have noticed something strange about it.
The RM of Stanley have been implementing a relatively new process using something called ‘Geocell’, in which crews lay out many flexible, three-dimensional, honeycomb-like structures made from polymers (like polyethylene, a common packing plastic, or polypropylene, a type of thermoplastic polymer resin) overtop a subgrade to stabilize it, and then fill them with either gravel or sand, to balance loads evenly.
Ken Thiessen, the Public Works supervisor for the Rural Municipality of Stanley helped introduce the concept and how the RM got started with the process, “Geocell came to us about seven or eight years ago. We ran across it at a trade show, and so we've been trying it for various different things over the years, mostly in road bases that have moisture issues... the oldest paved road now I believe is 4 years and it’s still solid. There’s less cracking in it than most structures that age.”
He went on to speak on the appealing cost benefit of the new process, “The cost of Geocell is roughly the same as the cost of three inches of pavement or hard top, and normally on industrial roads we often put 6 inches of pavement. We’re only putting on three... And we also use less expensive materials for the infill. Where normally this would be a 24-to-30-inch structure, this is now a 15-inch structure with 9 inches of very inexpensive screen sand as infill.”
Though only time can tell what long-term maintenance looks like for these new roads, Thiessen voiced hopes that if there continues to be less cracking, “...there’s less crack sealing to do. There’s less wear and tear on the surface because it is solid... That is the hope. There are other jurisdictions across the world that have tried this and have seen that net benefit.”
Click below to listen to the entire interview with Ken Thiessen.