Technology Summary
Accelerated Lithification Process Treatment
Lithification is Mother Nature’s complex process involving naturally occurring chemicals, minerals, heat, moisture, pressure and cementation that combine to form complex aluminosilicates and gradually turns soil to rock over many years.
Lithified Technologies US' Accelerated Lithification process treatment customizes each and every project by incorporating it's eco-friendly trade secret ingredients with a battery of testing activated by following a series of installation protocols to accomplish unprecedented high-performance road base strength within 24 hours!
LithTec™ is composed in part of naturally occurring chemicals to form the aluminosilicates necessary for cementation, and in combination with moisture and compaction turns reclaimed road materials into a sustainable foundation.
LithTec™ includes a component of cement in its proprietary composition; however, when the other naturally occurring geological chemistries are formulated together, a new compound is created, called “Nature’s Concrete™”.
LithTec™, as Nature’s Concrete™, is many times stronger at the same dosages than any variation of traditional cement, including Ordinary Portland Cement, Portland Pozzolana Cement, and cement products with admixtures. And, just as cement is one component in concrete, and concrete is not cement, cement is in LithTec™, but LithTec™ is not cement and is far from it. However, a similarity to Portland Cement used in soil for stabilization, is that LithTec™ can produce very high strength numbers (albeit at much lower dosages than the cement).
But what separates Nature’s Concrete™ from the same old pozzolan products that have been used for decades in road base stabilization is that LithTec’s™ Accelerated Lithification process produces a dramatically reduced pore cementitious bond that yields a unique combination of strength, ductility and permeability performance that is unmatched by cement, lime, polymers, or traditional stabilization products.
Strength in road designs is obviously important to handle today’s heavy trucks and equipment, but strength without elasticity to support the repeated loads going over the same roads time and time again, and strength without consideration for keeping water out of the road base (which is the #1 reason that roads fail), is a sure way to have roads break down quicker than expected.
Roads wear from the top down, but they fail from the bottom up
Why do roads break down and fail sooner than planned with all the advances in construction and engineering today? The answer lies in an old saying among road construction veterans, which is that "…roads wear from the top down, but they fail from the bottom up…". The reason roads fail from the bottom up primarily is that water either enters the road base or the "foundation" of the road through sub-grade infiltration, or water enters the road base from the top through cracks in the surface (many times caused due to brittleness attributed to the use of cement in the road base). No matter what the surface of your road is constructed of, once the road base begins to break down and becomes dispersive due to water, it is the beginning of the end for the road because more and more water will infiltrate the base and accelerate failure.
Traditional road designs that have been the accepted standard for years, place a significant part of the structural credit (and consequently cost) for the components needed to build the road in the surface, i.e., the asphalt or concrete top layer that you drive on. These traditional designs also limit the consideration for the structural credit for the road base, and give no credit for the permeability of the foundation or account for the effects of water reentering the road base and it becoming dispersive. From a cost standpoint, asphalt and concrete are the most expensive components compared to the base course and soil-cement materials under them, and as such, most of the budget for the total road expense has typically been allocated to the cost of the asphalt or concrete surface in traditional designs.
Designing LithTec’s™ unique combination of strength, elasticity and non-dispersive properties in your road’s foundation, roads can now be "value engineered" so that more of the structural credit is transferred to the road base. This reduces the amount of asphalt or concrete necessary in the surface for structural integrity, and because LithTec™ is carrying the structural load and it is a fraction of the price of asphalt and concrete, you get a lower overall cost while producing a better, longer lasting road.
Further, when safety is a concern or when faced with a significant number of miles of failing asphalt or failing gravel roads on a limited budget, you can now make an affordable road by reclaiming the materials you’ve already paid for and adding LithTec™ into the foundation of the road. With a strong structural base, a low-cost chip seal surface can be added to the LithTec™ treated, reclaimed materials in the base and the result is a safe, all-weather asphalt quality ride road for a fraction of the cost of asphalt.
Is LithTec™ a Soil Stabilizer? No. Not at all.
Find the differences why as revealed by Bob Sherwin, CEO
in the following VIDEO & PDF text summary:
