West Virginia WVDOT Geotextile Fabrics

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

West Virginia WVDOT - Geotextile Uses

West Virginia jobs cross steep hollows and ridgelines, shale and sandstone formations, karstic valleys in the Greenbrier, coalfield fills, and wide alluvial bottoms along the Ohio, Kanawha, and Monongahela. Add intense thunderstorms, rapid runoff, freeze–thaw in higher elevations, and heavy truck traffic on I-64, I-77, and I-79, and you get subgrades that can soften, pump fines, rut, scour, and slide. Geotextiles are the quiet engineering layer that helps pavements, structures, and drainage systems keep performing.

Separation and stabilization. On new lanes, shoulder widenings, and staged construction over marginal subgrade, a woven geotextile is placed between native soil and granular base. It keeps fine mountain silts and weathered shale from migrating into the aggregate under traffic, spreads loads, and preserves base thickness. Where subgrades are very soft or wet—floodplain approaches, utility cuts, underdrained benches, and reclaimed areas—crews first roll out fabric to create a working platform so haul trucks and pavers don’t punch through. On exceptionally weak ground or slide-prone repairs, the geotextile is often paired with a geogrid to add stiffness and speed construction.

Filtration and drainage. Water drives many failures in the hills. 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 and permittivity to local soils—tight shales in the Plateau versus cleaner alluvium along river terraces—lets water move while fines stay put, reducing clogged outlets, wet spots, and shoulder drop-offs. In cold corridors, 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 scour control. Where flows concentrate—culverts, storm outfalls, river bends, and steep channel linings—geotextiles serve as underlayment beneath riprap or armor stone. A robust nonwoven filter goes on the prepared bed or slope before rock. It prevents subgrade from piping through rock voids during high velocities, rapid drawdown, and debris-laden floods, helping the armor “lock in” and protecting embankments at bridge approaches and channel transitions from the New River Gorge to the Ohio River bottomlands.

Structures and MSE walls. Space is tight in mountain corridors, so mechanically stabilized earth (MSE) walls are common. Geotextiles act as joint and face filters, tucked behind panel or modular block joints so backfill fines don’t migrate to the face while drainage continuity is preserved. The same concept applies at wingwalls, backwalls, and around penetrations, where a filter layer keeps weeps functioning without trapping water—key for avoiding staining and loss of material at the fascia.

Pavement interlayers. Asphalt-impregnated nonwoven geotextile beneath overlays improves waterproofing and slows reflective cracking—important where large thermal swings, studded tire use in some districts, and deicing chemicals accelerate pavement aging. On preservation chip seals, paving fabrics limit water intrusion into the base and subgrade, extending service life with minimal added thickness.

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

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

Field practice that makes it work. Prepare subgrades smooth, remove protrusions, avoid wrinkles; orient rolls correctly; lap or sew seams as specified (larger overlaps on very soft ground); anchor with pins or the first lift; and cover promptly to limit UV and weathering. Selection stays function-driven—woven for stabilization and tensile capacity; nonwoven for filtration, drainage, and protection—tuned to West Virginia’s soils, hydraulics, and traffic demands.

Bottom line: on WVDOT projects, geotextile isn’t “landscape fabric.” It’s a purpose-chosen engineering layer that stabilizes variable subgrades, manages water and fines through steep terrain and storm events, protects structures and channels, and stretches pavement life statewide.

West Virginia WVDOT