ABSTRACT
In addition to the Three Gorges Dam, the currently proposed South-to-North (S/N) Water Transfer Canal is likely to be one of China’s major infrastructure projects in this new century. However, slope instability problems in unsaturated expansive soils along the middle-route of the Canal impose severe challenges to many academics and engineers. In this paper, a line of thoughts and some preliminary studies and reviews on the predictions of slope stability in expansive soils are discussed and presented. The studies and reviews include the effects of soil-water characteristic, rainfall infiltration, swelling potential and shear strength of the expansive soils. Moreover, some recent results from weathered soils are adopted for comparisons. The predictions of slope stability are intended to establish an early warning system for the S/N Water Transfer Canal project.
