The first use of fabrics in reinforcing roads was attempted by the South Carolina Highway Department in 1926. A heavy cotton fabric was placed on a primed earth base, hot asphalt was applied to the fabric, and a thin layer of sand was put on the asphalt. The department published the results of this work in 1935, describing eight separate field experiments. Until the fabric deteriorated, the results showed that the roads were in good condition and that the fabric reduced cracking, raveling and localized road failures. This project was certainly the forerunner of the separation and reinforcement functions of geosynthetic materials as we know them today.

In all, geosynthetics, perform five major functions: separation, reinforcement, filtration, drainage and moisture barrier. There are six families of geosynthetics: geotextiles, geogrids, geonets, geomembranes, geocomposites and "geo-others."

The above information was excerpted from the book Designing With Geosynthetics, Second Edition, by Robert M. Koerner, Ph.D., P.E. Copyright 1990 by Prentice Hall, Englewood Cliffs, N.J.

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