Utah UDOT Geotextile Fabrics

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

Utah UDOT - Geotextile Uses

Utah projects cross Great Salt Lake lakebed clays, collapsible alluvial fans, caliche-cemented deserts, and the steep Wasatch and Uinta corridors. Add high UV exposure, wide day–night temperature swings, long freeze–thaw seasons at elevation, and monsoon cloudbursts that turn dry washes into torrents, and you get subgrades that can soften, pump fines, rut, scour, or collapse when wetted. 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 work, UDOT commonly places a woven geotextile between native soil and granular base. The fabric prevents fine silts, lakebed clays, and dusty alluvium from migrating into the base under traffic, spreads loads, and preserves thickness—especially valuable where construction must proceed over freshly watered subgrade for dust control. On very weak or moisture-sensitive ground (playa margins, saturated approaches, utility cuts), crews roll out geotextile to create a working platform so haul trucks and pavers don’t punch through; on exceptionally weak areas it’s often paired with geogrid to add stiffness.

Filtration and drainage. Water may be scarce much of the year, but when it comes, it tests the system. Nonwoven geotextiles line underdrain and edge-drain 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 river sands in canyon bottoms versus finer lacustrine clays along the Wasatch Front—lets water pass while fines stay put, reducing clogged outlets, wet spots, and shoulder drop-offs. In cold districts, a nonwoven over open-graded aggregate also forms a capillary break, limiting upward moisture that fuels frost heave and weakens base layers in winter.

Riprap underlayment and flood control. Where flows concentrate—ephemeral washes, culverts, storm outfalls, and canyon channels—geotextiles serve as underlayment beneath riprap. A robust nonwoven filter goes on the prepared bed or slope before armor stone or gabions. It prevents subgrade from piping through rock voids during flashy, sediment-laden floods and rapid drawdown, helping the rock “lock in” and protecting embankments at bridge approaches and channel transitions on the Colorado Plateau and along Front Range drainages.

Structures and MSE walls. UDOT corridors include many interchanges with mechanically stabilized earth (MSE) walls. Geotextiles act as joint and face filters, tucked behind panel or block joints to keep backfill fines from migrating to the face while maintaining drainage continuity. The same concept applies at wingwalls, backwalls, and around penetrations, where a filter layer keeps weeps working without trapping water.

Pavement interlayers. Asphalt-impregnated nonwoven geotextile beneath overlays improves waterproofing and slows reflective cracking—valuable where large thermal swings, high altitude UV, and deicing chemicals accelerate pavement aging. Under chip seals widely used in preservation, paving fabrics limit water intrusion into base and subgrade with minimal added thickness.

Temporary erosion, sediment control, and access. During construction, geotextiles appear in silt fence, inlet protection, curb socks, and check structures. They filter runoff while trapping fines—critical for stormwater compliance on long medians, steep approach cuts, and urban work zones. At site entrances, stabilized construction exits typically include a nonwoven geotextile beneath coarse rock; the fabric spreads wheel loads and prevents the stone from punching into soft or freshly watered soils, reducing track-out and dust.

Liner protection and containment. Heavy nonwoven geotextiles cushion geomembranes in detention basins, lined ditches, salt- and sand-shed pads, and deicing-brine containment, protecting liners from puncture by angular aggregate and construction traffic. Near saline soils around the Great Salt Lake, durable polymers and prompt cover help ensure long-term performance.

Field practice. Success hinges on basics: prepare subgrades smooth, avoid wrinkles, use proper overlaps or sewn seams, anchor with pins or the first lift, and cover promptly to limit intense UV. Selection is function-driven—woven for stabilization and tensile capacity; nonwoven for filtration, drainage, and protection—tuned to Utah’s soils, hydraulics, and traffic demands.

Utah UDOT