Prof. Zornberg has over 35 years of experience in practice and research in geotechnical and geosynthetics engineering. As an engineering consultant, he has been involved in the design of civil, transportation, mining, and waste containment infrastructure. He has served as an expert witness in numerous litigation and forensic cases. As a researcher, he focuses on transportation geotechnics, geosynthetics, unsaturated soils, expansive clays, and environmental geotechnics. From 2010 to 2014, Prof. Zornberg served as president of the International Geosynthetics Society (IGS). He served the Geo-Institute of ASCE in numerous roles, including chair of its Geosynthetics Technical Committee, its 2017 Geo-Congress, and its International Activities Council. He has authored over 500 technical publications, edited several proceedings and book chapters, and been awarded three patents. Prof. Zornberg has been invited to deliver keynote lectures in over 30 countries around the world. He has received many prestigious awards, including the Mercer Lecture, ASCE’s Croes Medal, IGS Award, ASCE’s Collingwood Prize, and IGS’ Young Member Award, as well as the Presidential Early Career Award for Scientists and Engineers (PECASE) awarded by the President of the United States. In 2019, the IGS established the “Zornberg Lecture Award” in recognition of his contributions to the geosynthetics discipline.

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Invited Lecture

Geosynthetic Applications in Railways and Roadways

Jorge G. Zornberg, Ph.D., P.E., F. ASCE, Brunswick-Abernathy Regents Professor, The University of Texas at Austin, Past-President, International Geosynthetics Society

Geosynthetics have been extensively used to fulfill many functions in multiple railway and roadway applications. Specifically, geotextiles (woven and non-woven), geogrids (biaxial and multiaxial), and geocells are among the several geosynthetic products that have been successfully adopted to fulfill the functions of separation, filtration, reinforcement, stiffening, infiltration barrier, and drainage. These several geosynthetic types, with various associated functions, have, in turn, been used to accomplish many (often significantly different) railway and roadway applications, including (i) the mitigation of reflective cracking in structural asphalt overlays, (ii) stabilization of unbound aggregate layers, (iii) reduction of layer intermixing, (iv) reduction of moisture in structural layers, (v) stabilization of soft subgrades, and (vi) mitigation of distress induced by shrink/swell subgrades.
This presentation provides a framework to categorize and understand the multiple objectives, functions, and mechanisms involved in the use of geosynthetics for different railway and roadway applications. Emphasis is on the actual mechanisms that contribute to successfully achieving each one of the different applications. The presentation also highlights the significant benefits that incorporating geosynthetics in the design of railways and roadways can bring not only by improving their long-term performance but also by addressing sustainability goals.