CHAPTER 17

Soil Engineering
for Highway Design

ighway engineers are interested in the basic engineering properties of soils

because soils are used extensively in highway construction. Soil properties are
of signicant importance when a highway is to carry high trafc volumes with a
large percentage of trucks. They are also of importance when high embankments
are to be constructed and when the soil is to be strengthened and used as intermediate support for the highway pavement. Thus, several transportation agencies have
developed detailed procedures for investigating soil materials used in highway
construction.
This chapter presents a summary of current knowledge of the characteristics and
engineering properties of soils that are important to highway engineers, including the
origin and formation of soils, soil identication, and soil testing methods.
Procedures for improving the engineering properties of soils will be discussed in
Chapter 19, Design of Flexible Pavements.

17.1 SOIL CHARACTERISTICS

The basic characteristics of a soil may be described in terms of its origin, formation,
grain size, and shape. It will be seen later in this chapter that the principal engineering
properties of any soil are mainly related to the basic characteristics of that soil.

17.1.1 Origin and Formation of Soils

Soil can be dened from the civil engineering point of view as the loose mass of mineral and organic materials that cover the solid crust of granitic and basaltic rocks of
the earth. Soil is mainly formed by weathering and other geologic processes that occur
on the surface of the solid rock at or near the surface of the earth. Weathering is the
result of physical and chemical actions, mainly due to atmospheric factors that change
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