The stability of embankments constructed on the Akyazi soft alluvial soil

There are many stability problems of embankments constructed on the 11 km long section of the Kazanci-Gumusova Motorway in the northwest of Turkey. This section crosses the soft alluvial soils of the Mudurnu River, from km 145+000 to km 156+000. Most of the clays have low activity, low swelling potential, and they were classified as CL-CH. There are more plastic clays in the eastern parts of motorway. Because of the motorway embankments take place on a soft and soft to hard soil, the area was divided into four sub-areas based on evaluation of physical and mechanical properties. Stability analysis of Bishop, Janbu and Fellenius were applied and the ranges of stability factors were determined for the embankments in each sub-area. The maximum embankment height was considered in each analysis. As the motorway is situated on an active seismic zone (North Anatolian Fault Zone) earthquakes acceleration was taken into account for the stability analysis.