SETTLEMENTS - A GEOTECHNICAL PROBLEM OF HIGHWAY ENGINEERING

SAETTNINGER - ETT GEOTEKNISKT PROBLEM VID VAEGBYGGNAD

Various reasons for settlements and their consequences are described along with measures of preventing them or at least limiting their influence on comfortable driving and road safety. The most important factors are: the quality of the subgrade material, the height and the gradient of the embankment. Fills of fine soils such as silt, clay or fine moraine often cause settlement problems, particularly in winter construction when frozen lumps of soil are difficult to avoid. High embankments of fine soils should have a gradient of at least 1:2. Steeper slopes tend to be deformed with settlements in the verges as a result. The most significant settlements appear in roads on clayey subsoils. These settlements can either be caused by insufficient stability - resulting in lateral displacement - or consolidation due to permanent traffic loads, groundwater lowering or draining by trees growing close to the road. /TRRL/

• Corporate Authors:

  Soreningen Sveriges Vagmastare

  Drottningholmsv-80
  S-11242 Stockholm,   Sweden 
• Authors:
  • Olofsson, Thomas
• Publication Date: 1976

Language

• Swedish

Media Info

• Features: Figures; Photos;
• Pagination: p. 14-19
• Serial:
  • Vaegmaestaren
  • Issue Number: 3

Subject/Index Terms

• TRT Terms: Clay; Consolidations; Embankments; Ground settlement; Groundwater; Highway engineering; Highway grades; Mineral dislocations; Pavement subgrade; Rheology; Slopes; Traffic loads
• Subject Areas: Freight Transportation; Geotechnology; Highways;

Filing Info

• Accession Number: 00142494
• Record Type: Publication
• Source Agency: Swedish National Road and Traffic Research Institute
• Report/Paper Numbers: Analytic
• Files: ITRD, TRIS
• Created Date: Jul 19 2003 12:00AM