Geofoam

The primary function of geofoam is to provide a lightweight void fill below a highway, bridge approach, embankment or parking lot.

[citation needed] Geofoam shares principles with geocombs (previously called ultralight cellular structures) which has been defined as "any manufactured material created by an extrusion process that results in a final product that consists of numerous open-ended tubes that are glued, bonded, fused or otherwise bundled together.

"[1] The cross-sectional geometry of an individual tube typically has a simple geometric shape (circle, ellipse, hexagon, octagon, etc.)

Prior to installing geofoam, this area experienced 20–30 centimeters of settlement annually causing extreme roadway damage.

For example, Geofoam was placed beneath runways in Japanese airports, proving the material can sustain heavy and repeated pressure.

[4] The largest geofoam project in the United States took place from 1997 to 2001 on Interstate 15 in Salt Lake City, Utah.

A total of 3,530,000 cu ft (100,000 m3) of geofoam was used, and approximately $450,000 was saved by eliminating the need to relocate utility poles.

A brief summary of applications can be found at:[8] Slope stabilization is the use of geofoam in order to reduce the mass and gravitational force in an area that may be subject to failure, such as a landslide.

Some weak and soft soil cannot support the weight of the desired structure; an overpass bridge on the nearby picture.

If it was built out of traditional earthwork filling, it would have been too heavy and deform the weak soil underneath and damage the bridge.