ABSTRACT
In Brazil, most (90%) (dnit, 2007) of highway network is not paved and is under municipal jurisdiction. This majority, the absolute predominance is of soil road, mainly of tropical soils in its surface and with thicknesses upper the 1,0 meter, and without any type of covering. This preference is, mainly, due to the generalized procedure of maintenance adopted for the municipal organisms in which, when defects in the road surface occur it is carried out one cut and removal of all the superficial layer until the finish of the eventual holes. The new surface is displayed to the traffic until presenting problems again and then, being regularized in an inferior quota. This procedure continues until the depth of 1,0 meter, when points of superficial deformation occur and the draining is engaged, compelling the execution of located interventions and the construction of a new road platform with imported material and in superior quota, for retaking the practical common of maintenance adopted. This work has the objective to develop a study of the mechanical characteristics of one tropical soil typical of the agricultural region metropolitan city of Campinas, in São Paulo, under the condition of traffic of vehicles of average load and with speed very low due to the constant holes and the lack of any type of maintenance.
