Road on Peat: Observations and Design

In 1953, a road was reconstructed on a uniform peat bog. Certain lengths were overstressed by an excessive thickness of road material, and in places it was necessary to replace the gravel filling with a light-weight substitute. Road levels and settlements have since been recorded over a period of 26 years. Following an investigation in 1963, a simple method of design was formulated which requires settlement to be separately estimated under three headings: elastic (immediate), consolidation, and creep. These are then added together to give total settlements. Satisfactory agreement was found between observed settlements and those values estimated by the simple method. This agreement is again confirmed after 16 years. During the last twelve years, a general constitutive model has been developed for predicting settlements under three-dimensional stress.