Message-ID: <Pine.SOL.3.96L.980428212626.10392C-100000@fox.ksu.ksu.edu> Date: Tue, 28 Apr 1998 21:50:22 -0500 From: kerryo <mailto:astingsh@KSU.EDU> Subject: Re: Compressed Earth Blocks for Roadbuilding To: mailto:DEVEL-L@AMERICAN.EDU
> * Cinva, referring a particular brand originally popularized by the Whole
> Earth Catalog.
... > * Cinva-Ram invented in South America. It uses human labor, is relatively
> inexpensive. Two people working for one day can make about 250 to 500 blocks
> in a day.
CINVA is a research group in Bogota, Colombia. Their lever-action ram could be purchased from Schrader Bellows Inc in Akron Ohio, and its worth getting one, imo.
> Blocks can be made from earth stabilized
> with limestone, and then laid (with no curing time required) on existing
> surfaces. The SCEB road surface is reported to be more effective than
> concrete, and can be repaired by replacing blocks.
>
The more or less standard recipe is 1:2:9 cement: lime: soil (tho it depends on the soil type you have available), which is left to cure for a week. And it doesnt matter what your road surfacing is, its *very wise to prepare a proper sub-grade. If oyur old road is potholed, each of those holes is going to be a soft spot underneat the new topping unless you stabilize it somehow - handtamped gravel for instance.I have no experience with using rammed blocks as a roadbed, but I imagine its as useful as in laying up a wall to paint the blocks as you lay them with a thin cement wash to seal the surface.
> Sources of information on SCEB technology are CRA Terre (France), SKAT (
> Swiss Centre for Development Cooperation in Technology and Management),
> Tierra Sol y Mar (California), and Development Alternatives (India).
> Development Alternatives has a website to which Uwe directed me, but the
> email address given on the website does not seem to guarantee response.
>
VITA published "Making Building Blocks with the Cinva-Ram Block Press" (Arlington, VA 1977).
kerry