Influence of Geosta Addition on Cement-stabilised Chicoco Mud of the Niger Delta

Abstract

Chicoco is a very soft and extremely compressible organic marine mud found extensively and to considerable depths within the saline tidal flat or mangrove swamp of the Niger delta in southern Nigeria. Natural chicoco is highly undesirable, barely able to support a human of average weight but air-dried chicoco has been used successfully by the indigeneous people for shore protection, etc. especially if placed above water. Plain cement stabilization of most organic soils (including chicoco) is known to be ineffective. In this study, geosta, a chemical stabiliser relatively newly developed for organic soils was combined with ordinary Portland cement to stabilise chicoco. It was observed that neutralisation of acidic "air-dried" chicoco by basic geosta inhibited the expected ion-exchange reaction and its attendant improvement on mechanical properties. As a result and as geosta content increases, maximum dry density (MDD) was found to be only marginally improved but better for higher cement contents while optimum moisture content (OMC) decreases but with higher values for lower cement contents. Unsoaked CBR (but with samples wax-cured for 3 days) on the other hand was found to maximise at low geosta content and thereafter decreases continually - a major cost advantage in earthworks. In fact, the most effective influence was obtained at 4.0% cement plus about 1.5% geosta. This stabilization was also found to produce optimum road sub-base materials.