Engineering Properties of Locally Manufactured Burnt Brick Pavers for Agrarian and Rural Earth Roads

Abstract

This study explored the possibility of employing burnt bricks produced locally by completely traditional methods as pavers on unpaved agrarian and rural earth roads in indigent communities. The pavers would eliminate the problems on such roads of being waterlogged and impassible during the rainy season months and those of environmental and health hazards from raised dust during the dry season months. Three clay soils were investigated in the Ado region of Western Nigeria. Burnt brick pavers were produced using entirely traditional methods readily available in the indigent and rural environments. The engineering properties of the brick pavers were determined and it was found that they satisfied the requirements stipulated by ASTM C 902 Specification for Pedestrian and Light Traffic Paving Brick, thus making them suitable for usage on the earth roads.