What do the following items have in common: a Roman road, a large area of filled land in Holland, and a residential foundation drain system? In case you didn't guess, the answer is geotextiles. The Romans used textiles woven from reeds to stabilize swampy soil beneath their roads. Following World War II, the Dutch used sailcloth and canvas to stabilize roadbed fill and to drain waterlogged soils. Modern "geo" products, made from synthetics rather than canvas or reeds, have been used for many years beneath interstate highways to increase the service life of paving. Now a number of geotextiles and related products are finding use in residential construction. Among other things, this family of products could solve one of
