DESIGN AND EXECUTION OF GROUND INVESTIGATION FOR EARTHWORKS ABSTRACT The design and execution of ground investigation works for earthwork projects has become increasingly important as the availability of suitable disposal areas becomes limited and costs of importing engineering fill increase. An outline of ground investigation methods which can augment ‘traditional investigation methods’ particularly for glacial till / boulder clay soils is presented. The issue of ‘geotechnical certification’ is raised and recommendations outlined on its merits for incorporation with ground investigations and earthworks. 1. INTRODUCTION The investigation and re-use evaluation of many Irish boulder clay soils presents difficulties for both the geotechnical engineer and the road design engineer. These glacial till or boulder clay soils are mainly of low plasticity and have particle sizes ranging from clay to boulders. Most of our boulder clay soils contain varying proportions of sand, gravel, cobbles and boulders in a clay or silt matrix. The amount of fines governs their behaviour and the silt content makes it very weather susceptible. Moisture contents can be highly variable ranging from as low as 7% for the hard grey black Dublin boulder clay up to 20-25% for Midland, South-West and North-West light grey boulder clay deposits. The ability of boulder clay soils to take-in free water is well established and poor planning of earthworks often amplifies this. The fine soil constituents are generally sensitive to small increases in moisture content which often lead to loss in strength and render the soils unsuitable for re-use as engineering fill. Many of our boulder clay soils (especially those with intermediate type silts ...
