New Jersey NJDOT Geotextile Fabrics

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

New Jersey NJDOT - Geotextile Uses

New Jersey projects span tidal marshes in the Meadowlands, loose Coastal Plain sands in the Pinelands, glaciated tills up north, urban fills around port districts, and wide river corridors along the Delaware, Raritan, Passaic, and Hackensack. Add nor’easters, tropical remnants, freeze–thaw cycles, deicing salts, and heavy truck volumes on the Turnpike and I-95, and you get subgrades that can soften, pump fines, rut, scour, and settle. Geotextiles are the quiet engineering layer that helps pavements, structures, and drainage systems keep performing.

Separation and stabilization. On new lanes, shoulder widenings, and rehabilitation work, a woven geotextile goes between native soil and granular base. It blocks fine silts and clays—or windblown sands—from migrating up into the aggregate under traffic, spreads loads, and preserves base thickness. Where subgrades are very soft or saturated (marsh edges, low shoulders, utility trenches), crews first roll out fabric to create a working platform so haul trucks and pavers don’t punch through. On exceptionally weak ground, geotextile is often paired with geogrid to add stiffness and accelerate production.

Filtration and drainage. Water drives many failures in New Jersey, whether from tidal backwater, flashy coastal storms, or snowmelt. Nonwoven geotextiles line underdrain and edge-drain trenches, wrap perforated pipe, and separate drainage stone from surrounding soils behind retaining walls and backwalls. Matching apparent opening size (AOS) and permittivity to local soils—tight glacial clays in the north, cleaner sands in the south—lets water move while fines stay put, reducing clogged outlets, wet spots, and shoulder drop-offs. In freeze–thaw zones, placing a nonwoven over open-graded aggregate also forms a capillary break, limiting upward moisture that weakens base layers in winter.

Riprap underlayment and scour control. Where flows concentrate—culverts, storm outfalls, river bends, tidal channels, and coastal revetments—geotextiles serve as underlayment beneath riprap or armor stone. A robust nonwoven filter is placed on the prepared bed or slope before rock. It prevents underlying soil from piping through rock voids during high velocities, wave run-up, and drawdown, helping the rock “lock in” and protecting embankments at bridge approaches and channel transitions.Structures and MSE walls. NJDOT corridors include many interchanges with mechanically stabilized earth (MSE) walls. Geotextiles act as joint and face filters, tucked behind panel or block joints so backfill fines don’t migrate to the face while drainage continuity is preserved. The same concept applies around structural penetrations and backwalls, where a filter layer keeps weeps functioning without trapping water.

Pavement interlayers. Asphalt-impregnated nonwoven geotextile beneath overlays improves waterproofing and slows reflective cracking—important where heavy axle loads, thermal swings, and deicing salts accelerate pavement aging. On chip seals used on secondary routes, paving fabrics limit water intrusion into base and subgrade, extending service life with minimal added thickness.

Temporary erosion and sediment control. Geotextiles appear in silt fence, inlet protection, curb socks, and check structures. They filter runoff while trapping fines—critical for stormwater compliance in urban work zones and along long medians. At project entrances, stabilized construction exits typically include a nonwoven geotextile beneath coarse rock; the fabric spreads wheel loads and prevents stone from punching into wet soils, reducing track-out onto public roads.

Liner protection and containment. Heavy nonwoven geotextiles cushion geomembranes in stormwater basins, lined ditches, salt-shed pads, and deicing-brine containment, protecting liners from puncture by angular aggregate and construction traffic.

Performance hinges on basics: prepare subgrades smooth, avoid wrinkles, overlap or sew seams as required, anchor with pins or the first lift, and cover promptly to limit UV and salt exposure. Selection is function-driven—woven for stabilization and tensile capacity; nonwoven for filtration, drainage, and protection—tuned to New Jersey’s soils, hydraulics, and traffic demands.

New Jersey NJDOT