Experimental Study of Engineering Characteristics of High Liquid Limit Soil with Its Application in Embankment Construction

In order to reduce the economic loss of discarded or improved reclamation with high liquid limit soil, the fundamental characteristics of high liquid limit soil is studied through the lab tests, and aim at different type of high liquid limit soil, the engineering characteristics of direct reclamation and the best improved schemes are researched based on the trial road sections. It is shown that high liquid limit clay and sand-carrying high liquid limit clay can be used directly as embankment, using pack-cover method in accordance with the technical specification in China, and the degree of the compaction can be controlled at 88%, with the filling height no more than 8m and the total height of embankment no more than 12m; high liquid limit silt and sand-carrying high liquid limit silt are not suitable to be filled directly because the (California Bearing Ratio) CBR can not satisfy the requirement of greater than or equal to 3%, and therefore they should be improved before use; high liquid limit silt ought to be improved with quicklime, the best weight percentage is 5%, while sand-carrying high liquid limit silt should be improved with sand, the best weight percentage is 25%.