Full-service
Everything required to build the pavement from start to finish, self-delivered and handed over complete.
- Pre-milling, spreading, mixing
- Compaction, trimming and rolling
- Seal coat or asphalt
- One contract, one site supervisor
Services / Stabilisation methods
Sub-grade lime stabilisation
The subgrade is the ground the road sits on. If it's wet, soft or reactive clay, nothing built on top of it will last, no matter how good the base or the surfacing.
What it is
Lime stabilisation fixes the subgrade.
Hydrated lime or quicklime is spread and mixed through the top 200–300mm of the natural material, where it does three things: it draws the moisture out, it reacts with the clay to permanently reduce its plasticity and shrink-swell, and over the following weeks it gains strength through a slow pozzolanic reaction.
The result is a stable, workable platform that construction can proceed on, and a subgrade that won't soften and pump the base apart the first wet winter after the road opens.
When it's needed
The right call when
- Wet groundRain has got into the subgrade, or the water table is high, and the material won't compact. Lime dries it, often within a day, so the job can continue instead of waiting for weather.
- Reactive clayBlack soils, Hunter Valley clays, the "inherent clay" the Newell Highway is known for. Lime permanently reduces the shrink-swell that cracks pavements from underneath.
- Low-strength subgradeWhere the natural material's CBR is too low to support the pavement above, lime treatment lifts it, and lets the pavement above be thinner.
- Under stabilisationWhere a base-course stabilisation is planned but the subgrade beneath it is suspect, lime treatment first makes the whole structure work.
Best suited for
Where it earns its place.
- 01Local governmentCouncils / ShiresWet and reactive clay subgrades treated before the base goes on.
- 02Civil & head contractorsInfrastructure / CivilLime that dries wet ground, often within a day, so the job can continue.
- 03Developers & private clientsSubdivisions / IndustrialA thinner, cheaper pavement above a subgrade that has been treated properly.
How we work with you
Full-service and part-service
Flexible ways to engage Accurate, depending on your project requirements.
Part-service
Plant and crew for the stabilisation step itself, working to your programme with your own resources alongside.
- Stabiliser, spreader truck and water cart
- Operators who know the plant
- Your compaction, trimming and surfacing
- The specialist step, on your dates
Why it's worth doing properly
The cheapest insurance in road building
Subgrade treatment is the step most likely to be skipped to save money, and the one whose absence costs the most.
It fails from underneath
A pavement built on an untreated reactive clay will fail from underneath within a few years.
The fix is reconstruction
The fix at that point is full reconstruction.
The cheapest insurance
A few dollars per square metre of lime, mixed properly at the start, is the cheapest insurance in road building.
Experience
What Accurate has done
FAQs
Common questions.
01Hydrated lime or quicklime?
Hydrated lime is the standard choice for most subgrade work: safe to handle, spreads evenly, reliable reaction. Quicklime reacts faster and generates heat, which is useful where the priority is drying very wet ground quickly; it needs more care in handling and is slaked with water in the mixing process. Accurate uses both. Typical application is 2–4% by mass, set by a lime demand test on the actual subgrade material.
Related links
Enquiries, tender requests or specifications
Enquire about your next sub-grade lime stabilisation project
Call (02) 4942 6100 or send the road and the problem.
Contact Info
- (02) 4942 6100
- quotes@accuratestabilising.com.au
- 66 Kalaroo Rd, Redhead NSW 2290
- Mon–Fri 7:00am – 5:00pm