Caracterización de las fuentes de materiales más utilizadas en el Azuay, enfocado hacia su empleo para subbase, base y capas de rodadura

Abstract

An adequate road infrastructure helps a prosperous economic growth and an appropriate development of the region. This in turn depends mainly on the material used and its correct characterization; however, in the province of Azuay, the lack of a source of data on the available material and its scarcity make this difficult. In this study, the different sources of materials are analyzed. Twenty-seven mines were collected (14 Base/Sub-base and 13 Ballast). Ten of these were found near El Descanso sector, being the most relevant for Base/Sub-base and without previous characterization found: Atenas (Graiman), Rookaazul, Virginia and Cerro Tamuga. The materials are analyzed according to current regulations by means of the respective tests. The mines analyzed provide adequate characteristics for Bases/Sub-bases, except for the Cerro Tamuga mine, which presents a slightly higher plasticity index, which could be corrected through the addition of pozzolans, and the Atenas mine, which for its Sub-base type material presents small mismatches with the standard granulometries. Although the existing mines have adequate materials, these may not be available at times, due to political-administrative issues and generate shortages in the sector. To avoid dependence on these, a complete study on new sources of materials is needed, for which a compilation map of the most used in Azuay is developed, detailing their characteristics and providing guidelines for the study.