ABSTRACT
Soft clay as weak subgrade soil, under highway embankments should be treated to support pavement structure and traffic loads. Reinforcing such weak soil with geosynthetics is considered simple and economic but efficient treatment. This paper is devoted to present the effect of reinforcing soft clayey soils with two different geosynthetic types (geotextile and geogrid) on the soil characteristics represented by its shearing and bearing resistance. Triaxial and California Bearing Ratio are adapted in this research. It is found that geosynthetic reinforcement of soft clay highly improves its shearing and bearing resistance. It is also found that geogrid improves shearing resistance significantly, while its improvement to bearing resistance is moderate compared to the geotextile. Therefore, it is recommended to use geogrid reinforcement where higher shearing resistance is required such as prevention of slope stability failure. While, geotextile is recommended under road base to increase soil bearing capacity and reducing vertical settlement due to traffic loads.
