INVESTIGATION ON ENGINEERING PROPERTIES OF SOIL NEAR BY CHAMO LAKE

Abstract

Arba Minch town is the administrative and political center of Gammo Goffa zone. The town has its own future development plane so that the expansion of cities, industries, commerce, will require a numerous building, will plane high ways, pipelines and embankment and other constructions. The engineering and index properties of the soil are required for design and construction of the structures. Hence the present research is intended to investigate the engineering characteristics of soil found in Nearby Chamo Lake area. The investigation is done by field and laboratory testing. A laboratory-testing program was planned and carried out on 20 disturbed soil samples were collected from 1.5 m and 3 m depth of ten systematically selected test pits. The laboratory test results revealed that the swelling pressure ranges from 94 to 159kPa, Specific Gravity from 2.70 to 2.74, Plasticity Index from 33.20% to 45.34 %, and Free Swell from 33% to 60%.

The soil in the study area could be classified by using unified soil classification system (USCS) from the results that are obtained both from field and laboratory test and also from the classification system the soil in Chamo Lake is classified as inorganic clay soil of high plasticity.