Development of Reliable Geotechnical Methods and Standards for Design and Construction over Diatomaceous Deposits

Current design standards do not provide guidance for the selection of appropriate engineering properties and methodologies that reliably predict the behavior of diatomaceous deposits for the design of highway projects. Instead, only anecdotal experience is shared between Agency designers that the performance of any project over diatomaceous deposits can be unpredictable and often results in both delays and costly change orders during construction. The goal of this proposed research is to improve the geotechnical design of ODOT projects over these deposits. Two specific objectives include: (1) Develop a predictive model to estimate geotechnical properties of diatomaceous deposits, leveraging available data from existing ODOT projects supplemented with additional targeted field-directed geotechnical testing. (2) Develop methods for a standard of practice for geotechnical design over Oregon’s diatomaceous deposits, including suggested edits to ODOT’s Geotechnical Design Manual (GDM), a summary map with descriptions of Oregon’s diatomaceous basins and associated ODOT...

Language

• English

Project

• Status: Active
• Funding: $407521
• Contract Numbers:

  SPR820

• Sponsor Organizations:

  Federal Highway Administration

  1200 New Jersey Avenue, SE
  Washington, DC  United States  20590
• Managing Organizations:

  Oregon Department of Transportation

  555 13th Street NE
  Salem, OR  United States  97301
• Project Managers:

  Glover-Cutter, Kira

• Performing Organizations:

  Oregon State University, Corvallis

  101 Kearney Hall
  Corvallis, OR  United States  97331
• Principal Investigators:

  Evans, T

• Start Date: 20180716
• Expected Completion Date: 20221231
• Actual Completion Date: 0
• USDOT Program: Transportation, Planning, Research, and Development

Subject/Index Terms

• TRT Terms: Geotechnical engineering; Highway design; Mapping; Methodology; Road construction; Soil deposits; Standards
• Geographic Terms: Oregon
• Subject Areas: Construction; Design; Geotechnology; Highways;

Filing Info

• Accession Number: 01680042
• Record Type: Research project
• Source Agency: Oregon Department of Transportation
• Contract Numbers: SPR820
• Files: RIP, STATEDOT
• Created Date: Sep 10 2018 2:18PM