Abstract
The rapid development of China’s economics makes it urgent to widen the existing highways especially those located in the south-eastern coastal areas over thick soft soils. Adding a new embankment adjacent to the existing highway embankment is a cost effective choice compared with the traditional methods to build another new one and can reduce the heavy traffic pressure. However, it may also cause some engineering problems including the excessive settlements settlements, road cracks, excessive tensile stresses on the pavement even local or global instability of embankments. So some proper measures should be taken to solve the problems caused by widening is of great importance in engineering practice. A numerical analysis was performed to investigate the effect of different kinds of soft soil treatments including rigid piles, stone columns and prefabricated vertical drains (PVDs) usually used in highway widening projects located in the thick soft soils. It was found that the rigid piles can effectively reduce the additional settlements of the existing embankment induced by widening as well as the settlements of the widened embankment. While the stone columns and PVDs play little role in controlling the additional settlements caused by widening.
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