ENGINEERING PROPERTIES OF KUTTANAD SOIL

Abstract

Kuttanad comprising an area of about 900 sq.km. in Central Kerala represents a. recent sedimentary fazma-cion. The soil deposit in this region is a soft organic silt or clay formed by the slow siltinq up of an extensive backwater tract. The soil is in such a loose state that it is very treacherous as a foundation material. The problem is further aggravated by the monsonnic floods and the general behaviour of the crowded river and canal pattern. The depth of the loose deposits extends to more than 30 m in many places. Difficulties are encountered in laying good roais in the area to provide transport facilities. At many places road embankments have failed `roue to the poor bearing capacity of the sub-soil. Continuous settlements cf road embanlanents are not uncommon. Desiqninq foundations for bridges and other bearing structures is a highly complicated problem in this area and there has been many examples cf failures or heavy settlements of built in abutments of bridges. This report deals with the basic preliminary properties, shear and consolidation characteristics cf the soil sample collected from the area. Experiments have been conducted on soil samples collected from depths varying from 1.5 m to 6 m below ground level. The possibilities of improving the suita-bility of the soil as a foundation material are discussed in detail* The purpose of this study is to help the fo)undati.on engineer by providing him with data on subsurface condition of the soil in this area,