Quarry Fines-Amended Chesapeake Bay Dredged Sediments as Potential Highway Embankment Materials

Abstract

Several hundred million cubic yards of sediment are dredged from various U.S. ports, harbors, and waterways annually to maintain and improve the nation’s navigation system for commercial, national defense, and recreational purposes. Most of the dredged materials in these facilities typically classify as ML and MH soils. The current study aims to explore the use of sediments dredged from Chesapeake Bay as potential highway embankment materials by amending them with quarry by-products. Geotechnical analysis is coupled with environmental assessment to ensure satisfactory performance of the dredged materials as an embankment fill material. The compaction and shear properties of the dredged sediments improved upon blending with the quarry by-products. The concentrations of all metals released during the batch leach tests from the treated dredged materials were below the water quality limits. Column leach tests yielded generally low or non-detectable metal concentrations. The results of the geochemical modeling indicated that the leaching of the analyzed metals was solubility-controlled.