ABSTRACT
In Osaka Bay of Japan, a number of large-scale reclamations has been executed. The settlement by those reclamations is serious enough to be discussed. The compression of the stiff Pleistocene clay deposits causes the half of this settlement, and it makes the quality control of the reclaimed lands very difficult. The residual settlement of Pleistocene clay deposits after the completion of reclamation cannot be avoided because of the difficulty of ground improvement for them. According to the geological history, the Pleistocene clays in Osaka Bay are thought to be the normally consolidated aged clays that exhibit apparently overconsolidated behavior although this is due to the nature of quasi-overconsolidation. This makes the problem of settlement more complex. In this paper, the characteristics of the long-term settlement of the reclaimed lands at Osaka Port are discussed based on the measured data, and a series of long-term consolidation tests is done to assess the property of the quasi-overconsolidated Osaka Bay Pleistocene clays.
