Chatham-Kent grew fast after the railway arrived in the 1850s, turning riverfront farmland into streets and industrial yards. The underlying glacial till and thick clay deposits create a tricky subgrade for any paved surface. Our team has handled flexible pavement design for municipal collectors, private driveways, and truck access routes across the municipality. We start every project by assessing the in-situ moisture content and California Bearing Ratio of the native soil. That data drives the structural number calculation and layer thickness recommendations. Before we finalize any design, we often run a placa de carga on the compacted subgrade to verify the modulus of reaction. It is a simple check that saves costly overruns later.
A CBR of 3 percent in native clay means the granular base must be thick enough to spread wheel loads without pumping the subgrade.