New Mexico NMDOT Geotextile Fabrics

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

New Mexico NMDOT - Geotextile Uses

New Mexico highways cross caliche-cemented alluvial fans, volcanic gravels, playa silts, and urban fills from Farmington to Las Cruces. Add high UV exposure, big day–night temperature swings, long dry spells punctuated by intense monsoon storms, and freeze–thaw pockets at higher elevations, and you get subgrades that can ravel, rut, collapse when wetted, or wash out in a single storm. Geotextiles are the quiet engineering layer that helps pavements, structures, and drainage systems keep performing.

Separation and stabilization. On new lanes, shoulder widenings, and rehab projects, a woven geotextile is placed between native soil and granular base. It keeps dusty desert fines and collapsible silts from pumping into the aggregate under traffic, spreads loads, and preserves base thickness—especially valuable where construction proceeds over freshly watered subgrade for dust control. Over very weak or moisture-sensitive soils (playa margins, utility crossings, disturbed alluvium), crews roll out fabric to create a working platform so haul trucks and pavers don’t punch through. On exceptionally soft or collapsible areas, geotextile is often paired with geogrid for added stiffness.

Filtration and drainage. Even in an arid climate, water management is decisive. Nonwoven geotextiles line edge-drain and underdrain trenches, wrap perforated pipe, and separate drainage stone from surrounding soils behind retaining walls and abutments. Matching apparent opening size (AOS) and permittivity to local soils—clean sands in river terraces versus silty alluvium in arroyos—lets stormwater pass while fines stay put, cutting off the mechanisms that clog outlets and undermine shoulders. At higher elevations, pairing a nonwoven with open-graded aggregate can also form a capillary break, limiting upward moisture that weakens base layers during freeze–thaw.

Riprap underlayment and flood control. Where flows concentrate—ephemeral arroyos, culverts, storm outfalls, and channel linings—geotextiles serve as underlayment beneath riprap. A robust nonwoven filter is placed on the prepared bed or slope before armor rock or gabions. It prevents the subgrade from piping through rock voids during flashy, sediment-laden floods, helping the riprap “lock in” and protecting embankments at bridge approaches and ditch transitions. On long reaches with steep draws or rapid drawdown, seams are overlapped generously or sewn and anchored to stay continuous under shifting hydraulics.Structures and MSE walls. NMDOT 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 at wingwalls, backwalls, and structural penetrations, where a filter layer keeps weeps functioning without trapping water.

Pavement interlayers. Asphalt-impregnated nonwoven geotextile beneath overlays improves waterproofing and slows reflective cracking—valuable where high temperatures, large thermal swings, and heavy axle loads age pavements quickly. On chip seals common to rural districts, paving fabrics limit water intrusion into base and subgrade, extending service life with minimal added thickness.

Temporary erosion, sediment control, and access. Geotextiles appear in silt fence, inlet protection, curb socks, and check structures. They filter runoff while trapping fines—important for stormwater and dust compliance in urban work zones and along long desert 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 soft or freshly watered soils, reducing track-out.

Liner protection and containment. Heavy nonwoven geotextiles cushion geomembranes in detention 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 intense UV exposure. Selection is function-driven—woven for stabilization and tensile capacity; nonwoven for filtration, drainage, and protection—tuned to New Mexico’s soils, hydraulics, and traffic demands.

New Mexico NMDOT