Geotextile reinforced piled embankment for highway bridges

Abstract

In highway bridge construction, the piled foundation of the bridge structure helps to limit its movement, whereas the embankment leading to the bridge is commonly constructed on soft soil and may settle significantly. Hence, this may cause two possible problems: the failure of bridge support piles due to lateral spreading of the subsoil and the presence of destructive differential settlements between the structure and the embankment. The use of piles coupled with geotextile reinforcement to support the embankment in the vicinity of the highway bridge structure has gained popularity very recently in South East Asia due to its effectiveness and economical advantage. A series of full-scale model tests have been carried out to investigate the contributions of soil arching and geotextile membrane-reinforcement in piled embankment. Two full-scale model tests were reported in this paper. The effect of different fill height was evaluated in these two tests. The strains in geotextile sheets, vertical load in pile as well as deformation pattern of geotextile sheet were recorded continuously throughout the tests.