The stability of any pavement depends upon the stability of its subgrade soil. Subgrade governs the performance, life span and effectiveness of the pavement. The entire load coming over the pavement is ultimately borne bythe subgrade. Thus, the subgrade plays a very important role in the pavement design. Now-a-days, many techniques are used to stabilize the subgrade soil, use of natural fibres being one of them. Natural fibresare cheap, easily available and ecofriendly. In order to stabilize the subgrade soil, jute fibres in 50 mm length and proportions of 0.25%, 0.5%, 0.75% and 1% were used as the reinforcing agents in the present study. The California Bearing Ratio test was conducted on all the samples and the results have been presented in the paper.Subgrade is the lowest layer of the pavement. It takes all the loads of the pavement as well as the loads coming on the pavement. So, it should possess sufficient stability under adverse climatic and loading conditions. The defects in black top pavement surface like rutting, corrugation, etc. are generally attributed to poor subgrade. Thus the stability of the pavement depends upon the stability of the subgrade. In order to enhance the engineering properties, soil can be reinforced using jute fibre. Jute fibre is preferable because of its better durability, high tensile strength and capacity to withstand rotting and heat, porous texture which gives it good drainage and filtration properties. Moreover, jute is locally available, cheap, eco- friendly and biodegradable. Reinforcing in soil masses increases its strength, bearing capacity and ductility; reduces settlement and inhibits lateral deformation. Fibre reinforced soils show greater extensibility, small loss of post peak strength, isotropy in strength and absence of planes of weakness.

GENERAL, SUBGRADE SOIL, REINFORCING MATERIAL

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