Fundamental Soil Problems in Military Road and Airfield Construction

Synopsis This article has been written in response to a request made to the Institution of Civil Engineers for a British contribution to a meeting of the Soil Mechanics and Foundations Division of the American Society of Civil Engineers at which consideration is to be given to the applications of soil mechanics to military engineering problems. The objects of the article are to discuss the basic problems that are encountered in the use of various methods of constructing military roads and airfields, and to describe the results obtained from investigations of some of these problems carried out in Great Britain. To satisfy the various military requirements that arise in this work it is necessary that the best use be made of the soil in different climatic conditions, and this involves the consideration of soils both as foundation and as constructional materials. In this article the approach is based largely on experience of conditions in the British Isles, where the soils are predominantly clays, and the cli...