01025469

Component

Long-term settlements of highway embankments in the eastern North Carolina have been a continuous challenge to the engineers of the North Carolina Department of Transportation (NCDOT). Traditionally, the NCDOT engineers have predicted the consolidation settlement using Terzaghi's one-dimensional consolidation theory and used remedial measures such as vertical wick drain or replacement of problematic soils to treat the long-term settlement problems. However, these remedial measures have had a limited success due to various reasons. There have been increased demands for a more reliable method to prevent settlement problems of highways over soft soil deposits. Construction cost and time become more critical as the NCDOT's highway construction fund shrinks while the public's demand for accelerated construction grows. This paper presents two case studies of projects where pile supported foamed concrete embankment was proven to be an economic and efficient alternative to the conventional highway embankments over very soft soil deposits with long-term settlement problems.

01020180

06-1828

English

17p

2006

Transportation Research Board 85th Annual Meeting

CD-ROM

Figures (8) ; References (4) ; Tables (1)

Concrete; Cost effectiveness; Embankments; Foamed materials; Soft soils; Support piles

North Carolina

Geotechnology; Highways; I42: Soil Mechanics

Transportation Research Board Annual Meeting 2006 Paper #06-1828

BTRIS, TRIS, TRB

Mar 3 2006 10:48AM