Arkansas ARDOT Geotextile Fabrics

Solmax DOT Standard Specification Product Chart (click image to expand)

Arkansas ARDOT - Geotextile Uses

Arkansas highways traverse Delta clays, loessal silts, alluvial sands, and the steeper gravels of the Ozarks and Ouachitas. Add frequent heavy rains and flashy streams, and you get ground that can pump, rut, scour, and move fines. Geotextiles are the quiet layer that keeps those problems in check. Their first job is separation and stabilization. On new lanes, shoulder widenings, and rehabilitations, a woven stabilization geotextile is placed between weak subgrade and base aggregate. It prevents fine soils from migrating up into the base, spreads load, and preserves thickness—especially important on expansive clays in the Delta and on sections where traffic must run over subgrade during staged construction. On very soft or saturated ground, crews may use geotextile to establish a working platform so haul trucks and pavers can operate without punching through.

Because Arkansas gets intense rainfall, filtration and drainage are constant priorities. Nonwoven geotextiles line underdrain trenches and wrap perforated pipe so water can enter while fines stay put. Behind retaining walls and bridge backwalls, geotextile separates the soil from drainage stone, protecting outlets and weeps from clogging. The same logic applies to edge drains along superelevated curves or low shoulders where water collects: keep the soil stable, let the water move out.

Where flow concentrates—washes, culverts, drop structures, outfalls, and channel linings—geotextile serves as riprap underlayment. A robust nonwoven filter is placed on the prepared slope before armor rock. It prevents subgrade from piping through rock voids during high-velocity events and helps the riprap lock in. You’ll see this at culvert inlets/outlets, stream realignments, grade controls, and along the Arkansas, White, and Ouachita river corridors, where stage rises can be rapid and sediment loads high.

ARDOT projects also rely on geotextiles for temporary erosion and sediment control. Silt fence uses a woven filtration fabric to intercept sheet flow on disturbed ground, allowing sediment to settle while water seeps through. Inlet protection and ditch checks often incorporate geotextile as the filtering layer so fines are captured without damming water. At project entrances, stabilized construction exits typically include a nonwoven geotextile beneath coarse rock; the fabric distributes wheel loads and keeps stone from punching into wet soils, cutting track-out and helping with stormwater compliance.

In structures and earth-retaining systems, geotextile acts as a joint and face filter. Mechanically stabilized earth (MSE) walls use strips of geotextile behind panel or block joints to keep backfill from migrating to the face while maintaining drainage continuity. Heavy nonwoven geotextiles also protect liners and membranes where ARDOT uses detention basins, lined ditches, or containment features—cushioning against puncture from angular aggregate and construction traffic.

Finally, Arkansas makes strategic use of pavement interlayers. Asphalt-impregnated nonwoven geotextile beneath overlays reduces water intrusion and slows reflective cracking—valuable on older composite pavements and on routes with large day-night temperature swings. On chip seals, paving fabrics can improve waterproofing and extend service life.

Field practice ties it together: prepare subgrades smooth, avoid wrinkles, overlap seams generously, secure with pins or initial lifts, and cover promptly to limit UV degradation. Selection is function-driven—woven for stabilization and tensile strength; nonwoven for filtration, drainage, and protection—tuned to the project’s soils, hydraulics, and traffic.

Bottom line: on ARDOT work, geotextile isn’t “landscape fabric.” It’s a purpose-chosen engineering layer that stabilizes soft ground, controls water and fines, protects structures and channels, and stretches pavement life across Arkansas’s varied geology and storm-prone climate

Akansas ARDOT