INVESTIGATIONS OF ENGINEERING PROPERTIES OF SOILS FOUND IN MEKI TOWN

Abstract

The aim of this thesis is to investigate engineering properties soils of Meki town. Meki is a town of administrative center of Dugda Bora district in east Showa zone, which is developing rapidly as it is near to industrial zone and surround by wide agricultural activities. Recently in the town many building were under construction, but without detailed geotechnical investigation. Therefore, investigation of engineering properties of subsoil in an urban area is important to provide geotechnical information for various civil engineering works. To arrive at this objective, seven representative test pits were excavated over different parts of the town from which fifteen samples were taken and laboratory tests done on the collected samples. For all tests the apparatus and the procedures used for analysis were done according to American Society for Testing Materials standard. The specific gravity test results showed that the soils in the study area are either sand or gravel with results ranges from 2.65-2.68. Grain size analysis verify that the predominant proportion of the soils is sand size fraction in which the percentage of sand fraction ranges from 73.96 – 94.43%, gravel fraction from 0.4 – 17.16 %, silt fraction from 4.5 – 13.83% and clay fraction from 0 – 2.6%. The results determined from consistency limit have shown both none plastic and plastic soil even though with low plasticity outcome that ranges from 2.94 – 6.29%. Lower plastic index result obtained dictates some amount silt content and predominance of sand soil which are cohesion- less with no plasticity phase. According to the AASHTO and USCS System soil of Meki town classified into granular soils and silt sandy soils respectively. Angle of internal friction ranges from 230 – 530 and cohesion values from 2.23 - 20.87 kPa.