Location
Arlington, Virginia
Date
14 Aug 2008, 7:00 pm - 8:30 pm
Abstract
Two highway bridge approaches, about 10 and 12 m in height, near Calcutta, India constructed with mechanically stabilized earth failed recently. These embankments were founded on soft and compressible, fine-grained soils of the intertidal flats and backswamps of the Ganges delta. One of these embankments, which failed in the final stages of its construction, was constructed after foundation soils were strengthened with preloading and prefabricated vertical drain installation and the other second embankment that failed within a month of its opening for traffic was constructed on unimproved ground. Fortunately, direct collateral damage from these incidents was small. Available geotechnical data indicated that design inadequacy was the main cause of these failures. Using pre- and post- consolidation shear strengths the embankments were redesigned. Reconstruction involved PVD installation at the second site and construction of stabilizing berms at both locations. The facilities are now operational and appear to be performing satisfactorily. Details of the failures, post failure investigations and monitoring, and redesign are presented in the paper.
Department(s)
Civil, Architectural and Environmental Engineering
Meeting Name
6th Conference of the International Conference on Case Histories in Geotechnical Engineering
Publisher
Missouri University of Science and Technology
Document Version
Final Version
Rights
© 2008 Missouri University of Science and Technology, All rights reserved.
Creative Commons Licensing
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 4.0 License.
Document Type
Article - Conference proceedings
File Type
text
Language
English
Recommended Citation
Roy, Debasis and Singh, Raghvendra, "Failure of Two High Embankments at Soft Soil Sites" (2008). International Conference on Case Histories in Geotechnical Engineering. 2.
https://scholarsmine.mst.edu/icchge/6icchge/session08b/2
Failure of Two High Embankments at Soft Soil Sites
Arlington, Virginia
Two highway bridge approaches, about 10 and 12 m in height, near Calcutta, India constructed with mechanically stabilized earth failed recently. These embankments were founded on soft and compressible, fine-grained soils of the intertidal flats and backswamps of the Ganges delta. One of these embankments, which failed in the final stages of its construction, was constructed after foundation soils were strengthened with preloading and prefabricated vertical drain installation and the other second embankment that failed within a month of its opening for traffic was constructed on unimproved ground. Fortunately, direct collateral damage from these incidents was small. Available geotechnical data indicated that design inadequacy was the main cause of these failures. Using pre- and post- consolidation shear strengths the embankments were redesigned. Reconstruction involved PVD installation at the second site and construction of stabilizing berms at both locations. The facilities are now operational and appear to be performing satisfactorily. Details of the failures, post failure investigations and monitoring, and redesign are presented in the paper.
