English expression suitable for "Vorkopfbauweise" 1

[singingk]

I' m searchin for an english expression, which designates the following way of embankment construction on soft soils called "Vorkopfbauweise" in german: the embankment is built by placing the fill on the soft soil at the end of the part of the embankment which has been built before. "Towards the head construction" seems to me beeing a word by word translation cause I can't find any articles or papers using this term.

 

[BigH]

I have a suspicion that this is similar to "rolling surcharge" whereby you build up the end of the embankment and "force" the soil at the front to fail (I've do this by driving a dozer up the "head") and thereby displace the very soft clay/peat in front. This, along with "swamp shooting" is discussed in Tschebotarioff (1951). These methods were used extensively in Michigan and Minnesota during the 20s and 30s. This is referenced, too, in Michigan State Highway Dept "Field Manual of Soil Engineering", February 1946. I used something similar to displace tailings slimes in Guyana - displaced something like 40 ft of slimes with very little surcharge. This is described by Matich et al in a paper presented at the 3rd Conf on Construction and Mining in Difficult Soils, Sudbury 1986 sponsored by the Cdn Geo Society and the Cdn Society for Civil Engineering. Also see page 128 of 190 in the following:

http://www.in.gov/indot/files/exhibitc.pdf

 

[singingk]

BigH, thanks for your answer and the link, it's always usefull to have access to a broad range of literature. "Swamp shooting" and "rolling surcharge" was/is also used in Germany and I admited the terms to my private dictionary. But I'm sorry your proposal does not match the procedure I tried to describe, the soft (0,5 < Ic < 0,75) soils should not be displaced by the embankment (exept for the unavoidable settlements). With further research I found the term "end tipping" in some papers as designation for the procedure I tried to explain. What do you (or anybody else in this forum) think about it?

 

[civilperson]

"Bridging" by filling ahead of the construction traffic on soft or swampy ground. Push 2-3' lift onto soft soil for support of construction machinery.

 

[BigH]

End tipping works. If my memory serves me right, it would be best to use "shallow fill" to end-tip off of at the "front" - build the thickness up later AND would suggest that you push the "outer" fills first, then with an infill sort of like what I have attached (forgive the "sketchiness"). This helps in reducing the stresses under the main part of the embankment and helps in short-term stability.

 

[singingk]

Thank you very much for your helpfull postings, special thanks to BigH for the nice sketch.

 

[DMcGrath]

Thanks to BigH as well - I am in the process of writing a description of possible road construction alternatives and was searching for the right words to describe processes to non engineers. "End Tipping" was just right!