Interaction Between Widened and Existing Embankment on Soft Soils

摘要

The most cost effective choice to improve existing highway capacity is to widen the existing highway embankments, but adding a new embankment adjacent to the old one may result in a series of geotechnical engineering issues including excessive differential settlement occurring between the existing and the widened embankment which will subsequently cause longitudinal pavement cracks, drop off or even local or global instability of embankments especially those on soft soils. Therefore, how to minimize the differential settlements and prevent severe cracks is of great concern when widening the existing embankments. The interaction between the existing and the widened embankment was analyzed to explore the influence of the starting time to widen on the additional settlement in the existing embankment. The development of transverse stress in the pavement and the evolution of the pavement slope were also investigated. In the view of reducing differential settlement and pavement tensile stress caused by widening in the embankment, a most suitable time to begin widening was proposed.