BallastGuard™

BALLAST PRESERVATION SYSTEM

Ballast fouling is one of the costliest maintenance repairs experienced on commercial and industrial railway projects worldwide. Ballast fouling can be experienced when extreme loads travel over rail sections built over saturated soil sub-grades retaining water like a sponge. When a heavy load travels over problematic areas like this, the result is “mud pumping”, which forces fine silt and soil particles up into expensive sub-ballast and ballast stone in the trackbed.

BaseLok® BallastGuard™ is the combination of a proprietary geotextile laminated to our high strength BaseLok® Geogrid, forming a Super Geocomposite. BaseLok® BallastGuard™ keeps the mud from migrating up into the ballast section, while reinforcing the ballast stone above. BaseLok® BallastGuard™ has been proven to prevent ballast fouling and reinforce the sub-ballast and ballast stone, resulting in a vast reduction in maintenance and failures.

Features & Benefits

Protects costly sub-ballast and ballast stone from fine sub-grade contamination or “mud pumping”.
High Strength BaseLok® Geogrid confines and enhances the performance of sub-ballast and ballast stone in trackbed.
Overall reduction in maintenance. Undercutting, subgrade repairs, and ballast tamping are all significantly reduced!

Deployment of BallastGuard

BallastGuard™ Preservation System

BallastGuard™ Ballast Preservation System creates a geocomposite of high strength geogrid and anti-mud pumping geotextile, which prevents costly ballast fouling and maintenance.

How BallastGuard™ Works

Sub-ballast aggregate layer by itself can migrate under intense loading and vibration as loaded rail cars travel. BallastGuard™ is a dual function geocomposite consisting of high strength BaseLok Geogrid which is installed beneath the sub-ballast layer. The open aperture of the high strength geogrid structure allows the interlock of the aggregate, thereby increasing the overall stiffness of the aggregate section. A laminated proprietary geotextile prevents the pumping of fine silts and mud up into the sub-ballast layer, preventing the contamination of costly ballast material, while maintaining the critical structure of the overall track/rail bed.