This study explored the effect of indigenous bacteria present in the soil to stabilized swelling behavior and improving the mechanical property of expansive soil. The objective of the research is to investigate the effectiveness of the biostimulation microbial induced calcite precipitation (MICP) for controlling the swelling-shrinkage behavior and improving shear strength of expansive soil. An attempt was made to develop an effective procedure to culture the indigenous bacteria for treating clays with varying plasticity and improve their engineering behavior. The detailed procedure has been investigated to effectively apply the MICP technique in clay soil, considering its low permeable nature. The applicability of biostimulation to clayey soils in minimizing their swelling potential and improving the strength is assessed. Both macroscale and microscale studies were conducted on untreated and biostimulated soils to observe changes in plasticity, strength, swelling, mineralogical, chemical characteristics. The present method has shown an effective alternative to improve the road pavement subgrade without affecting the eco-system of natural soil. The method investigated the effective way of providing the enrichment and cementation solution in clayey soil, which is the major concern in current literature. The study confirms that the calcite content has been increased with biostimulated MICP treatment up to 205% in the treated specimens and which future increased the unconfined compressive strength and split tensile strength. A reduction in the swelling pressure and swell strain is also observed. The results show that a cost-effect and eco-friendly method can be deployed for stabilizing the road pavement subgrades. The statistical assessment using multivariate analysis and hierarchical clustering dendrogram has been carried out to investigate the effect of the MICP treatment protocol on different soil and engineering parameters.

This study presents the micro-physical investigation of polypropylene (PP) fiber-reinforced, and silica fume (SF) stabilized expansive soil (BC) subgrade. The coupling effect of soil, PP fiber, and SF has been evaluated under the freezing-thawing (F-T) cycle to assess the durability of treated BC Soil. The curing method and duration staggeringly influence the strength of SF treated BC soil; therefore, three different curing method, i.e., moisture-controlled curing (MC), gunny bag curing (GC), and water submerged curing (SC) to a period of 7, 14, and 28 days were considered. The BC soil has been reinforced with 0.25%, 0.50%, and 1.00% PP fiber and stabilized with 2%, 4%, 6% and 8% SF. The physical, chemical, and microstructural properties were determined before and after 2,4,6,8,10 F-T cycles. With the increase in SF content, the unconfined compressive strength of the expansive soil has been increased due to the formation of Calcium Silicate Hydrate (C-S-H) gel. The chemically inert, hydrophobic, non-corrosive nature, and higher tensile strength of PP fiber, it has a higher potential to reinforce the BC soil for durability under tensile failure. This research confirms the possibility of incorporating SF and PP Fiber in road work applications, with significant environmental benefits.