Geofoam for Transportation

Types of Geofoam Transportation Applications

  • Roads
  • Highways
  • Railways
  • Runways
  • Bridge Approaches
  • Retaining Walls

History of Geofoam & Transportation

The first use of Geofoam was a transportation application in 1972 for the Flom Bridge project in Olso, Norway. Polystyrene was used to raise the frost line to reduce freeze-thaw cycling and roadway damage.  During the same year the Norwegian Public Roads Authorities adopted polystyrene as a lightweight fill material in road embankments.  The first official International Geofoam Conference was held in 1985 in Norway.

Geofoam & Transportation Applications Today

The first use of Geofoam in the United States was an embankment fill project for Highway 160 between Durango and Mancos Hill, Colorado in 1989.  The largest Geofoam project in the United States to date is the Highway I-15 project which employed Atlas Molded Products' Foam Control® Geofoam as embankment and utility protection fill from May 1997 to July 2001.  The use of 3.53 million cubic feet of Geofoam saved the I-15 project settlement time and approximately $450,000 that would have been spent relocating utility poles.

Atlas Molded Products' Geofoam Projects

  • I-15 Reconstruction, 2.53 Million Ft³, 1997-2001, Embankment & Utility Protection Fill (Salt Lake City, Utah)
  • TRAX West Valley Lightrail Extension, 2.13 Million Ft³, 2008-2010, Embankment Fill (Salt Lake City, Utah)
  • TRAX Airport Lightrail Extension, 1.89 Million Ft³, 2010-2011, Embankment Fill (Salt Lake City, Utah)
  • FrontRunner Commuter Rail, 387,750 Ft³, 2010, Embankment Fill (Draper, UT)
  • Cottonwood Street, 380,025 Ft³, 2005, Embankment Fill (Murray, Utah)
  • Legacy Highway, 352,000 Ft³, 2007, Roadway Utility Protection (Centerville, Utah)
  • Window Rock Highway, 292,000 Ft³, 2004, Embankment Fill (Mesa, AZ)
  • US 77 Bypass, 178,000 Ft³, 2005, Bridge Approach Fill (Arkansas City, Kansas)
  • Gary-Chicago Airport, 120,000 Ft³, 2012, Bridge Embankment Fill (Gary, IN)
  • Togwotee Pass, 94,500 Ft³, 2009, Embankment Fill (Dubois, Wyoming)
  • I-24 & 104th Ave Exchange, 89,600 Ft³, Roadway Void Fill (Denver, CO)
  • North Valley Parkway, 89,000 Ft³, 2007, Roadway Utility Protection (Phoenix, Arizona)
  • I-15 CORE, 67,000 Ft³, 2011-2012, Roadway Utility Protection (Utah County, Utah)
  • Plumas National Forest, 59,400 Ft³, 2007, Stabilization Fill (Oroville, California)
  • Cameron Pass, 24,000 Ft³, 2011, Embankment Fill, (Cameron, CO)
  • Woodbury County Bridge, 22,200 Ft³, 2013 Bridge Approach Fill, (Sioux City, IA)

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