2/27/2026
In collaboration with the Illinois Department of Transportation, Illinois Center for Transportation (ICT) researchers from the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering are working to use quarry by-products to makes cost-effective and durable roads.
Each year, quarries produce millions of tons of fine materials through crushing and screening processes that have potential for reuse. Illinois Center for Transportation and Illinois Department of Transportation are seeking ways to use these underutilized materials to build more cost-effective, durable roads with local Illinois materials
Erol Tutumluer, University of Illinois Abel Bliss Professor in Engineering, and Nishant Garg, U. of I. associate professor in the department of civil and environmental engineering, led the project with Andrew Stolba, IDOT’s chief geologist.
The team is studying dolomite, a carbonate material common in Illinois, to determine its effectiveness in improving base layers for roads when stabilized with other materials.
“We tested whether these waste quarry by-products, or rock fines from dolomite quarries, can actually be stabilized with a small amount of cement to make a strong and durable base layer for roads,” Garg said. “What used to be waste material can actually be used as a commercial, beneficial product for making roads.”
Dolomite contains magnesium oxide, which allows it to gain cementation, or strength, in the winter, making it more resistant to freeze-thaw and environmental conditions.
“Over the years, we’ve found that it (dolomite) is working better to resist rutting, and during winter months, actually shows more cementation,” Tutumluer said. “We wanted to understand the reason why this was happening.”
Tutumluer and Garg studied materials from eight Illinois quarries, using advanced characterization techniques to determine their physical, chemical and structural properties down to the atomic scale.
They selected four samples for more detailed study, ranging from highly dolomitic to purely limestone compositions, to determine how these factors influence strength development and durability under different stabilization conditions, such as adding cement, using cement replacement materials, and curing for 7 and 120 days, respectively.
After long-term testing, Tutumluer and Garg found dolomitic materials outperformed limestone ones due to the formation of hydrotalcite, a mineral known to refine microstructure and enhance long-term durability.
“From advanced characterization, we were able to find what gave dolomite better cementing, or stronger or durable characteristics,” Tutumluer said. “There is a hydrotalcite that’s forming, which was much more apparent in dolomitic samples as opposed to pure limestone because of dolomite’s mineralogy.”
The research team also explored using metakaolin, a calcined clay, to partially replace added cement to dolomitic quarry materials, which improved long-term performance but has limited availability.
“The research gave us a good idea as to what proportions of cement, dolomitic fines, what other supplementary cementitious material is needed, and ways to reduce that cement content while also increasing a supplementary cementitious material, but, at the same time, getting that reaction to create the hydrotalcite cycle, making it a nice, durable foundation,” Stolba said.
Tutumluer and Garg will explore an alternative for metakaolin — ladle furnace slag — to reduce added cement in dolomitic quarry materials. The ICT-IDOT project, R27-SP83: Ladle Slag Properties When Blended with Dolomitic Underutilized Quarry Materials, will begin March 1.
“With further research into supplemental cementitious materials, I think we’re going to be able to find locally available products that can be utilized and turn something that’s underutilized into something that people are actually seeking as a marketable product, reducing project cost due to its local availability,” Stolba said.
Read the report for the IDOT-sponsored research project, Investigation of Dolomite Aggregate Long-Term Cementation and Its Potential Advantage for Building Roads:
https://doi.org/10.36501/0197-9191/25-013
An article on the research is also published in Transportation Geotechnics:
“Long-term strength development and durability assessment of cement-stabilized carbonate-based aggregate quarry by-products: Potential role of hydrotalcite” https://doi.org/10.1016/j.trgeo.2025.101637