GEOELECTRICAL MONITORING FOR EMBANKMENT SETTLEMENT ON SOFT GROUND STABILISED WITH PREFABRICATED VERTICAL DRAIN

The use of geoelectric methods to explore soil conditions is a common practice in geotechnical investigations. This paper will be presented a geoelectric method that is carried for monitoring of settlement of new embankment for highway without disturbing the existing conditions and causing damage. The purpose of this study is to monitor the settlement rate of soft soils that have stabilized by prefabricated vertical drain (PVD) after a year of operation of the highway. Geoelectric investigations are carried out on ten points with the Wenner sounding configuration that can identify the soil layer on depths up to 50 m. After the results of the geoelectric investigation, it is found that the natural soil layer before loading matches the results of the boring test and the standard penetration test, thereby validating the accuracy of the geoelectric results. The deformation that occurs on the shoulder of the pavement structure based on geoelectric results is ∼1.2 m. The monitoring of the plate loading test shows deformation is in line with the result. In this case, the PVD performance as a method to accelerate consolidation and reduce soil compressibility can be detected directly.