United States Department of Transportation
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Abstract:Construction of the modern highway system has required large, high embankments using economically available fill from adjacent cuts or nearby borrow sources. Because of their widespread occurrence, shales and other weak, fine-grained sedimentary rock (siltstone, claystone, mudstone, etc.) were the main source of fill for many embankments from the Appalachian region to the Pacific Coast. The use of shale materials has caused excessive settlements of 1 to 3 ft (0.3 to 0.9 m) in many embankments. Frequent overlaying and raising of bridge abutments have been required to maintain grade. The main problem is determining which shales are durable enough to be placed as rock fill in thick lifts and which shales must be broken down and compacted as soil in thin lifts. The absence of proven criteria for classifying shale durability and predicting long-term performance has led some highway agencies to adopt a conservative approach where all shale materials are treated as soil.
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