In recent years a large number of shallow, surface failures has occurred in heavy clay embankments on the trunk road and motorway network. Seven methods of embankment treatment - five reinstatement and two preventative techniques - have been employed in a field trial on the a45 cambridge northern by-pass: the embankment, which was 7 m high, was constructed of gault clay. Each of the methods of treatment has been described and the construction costs reported. Although the results obtained from the trial are site-specific, they should also provide information relevant to the treatment of embankment slopes in other types of heavy clay. The work indicates that preventative techniques are less expensive than reinstatements and methods which re-use on-site materials are significantly cheaper than those requiring materials to be imported. The cheapest reinstatement technique used in the trial was geomesh containment, whilst granular replacement, which is currently the most widely used repair method, was the second most expensive. (Author/publisher)
Abstract