Understanding the thermal regime of road embankments in cold climates during winter is essential for efficient road design and accurate estimation of maintenance frequencies to reduce freeze-induced damage. In response to the challenging climate conditions in northern Sweden, an experimental field setup was designed to assess the thermal impact of culverts and accumulated snow in ditches on the thermal regime of road embankments during a winter season. This study provides detailed information on the experimental setup, highlights potential challenges from installation phase to data acquisition, and addresses measurement errors. Methods to ensure accuracy and obtain reliable data are also presented. Additionally, some of the obtained measurement results are included in this paper. The results show that snow impacts the thermal regime of the embankment from the onset of accumulation in the ditch, when the snow cover is still thin, until it reaches a depth of 65 cm. Beyond this depth, the soil beneath the snow remains almost unfrozen throughout the winter season. Additionally, the temperature distribution measurements within the embankment indicate that freezing progresses faster near the culvert compared to the rest of the embankment. However, once the culvert ends are insulated by snow cover, the frost depth in the soil near the culvert does not increase significantly, while the rest of the road continues to freeze gradually to greater depths throughout the winter season. The measurement results presented in this study provide researchers with a reliable dataset for validating numerical models in related research areas simulating cold-climate conditions. Additionally, these results enhance the understanding of the thermal regime of road embankments in typical cold climates and offer valuable insights for planning road maintenance and construction in such regions. Furthermore, this study provides essential information for researchers aiming to design and optimize experimental measurement setups in similar investigations.

Construction of infrastructure over soft soils presents significant challenges for sustainable foundation solutions due to low bearing capacity, high compressibility, ongoing long-term creep and onerous design performance criteria. The commonly adopted solution to these challenges is to construct a rigid structure which is often carbon intensive, costly and does not necessarily circumvent all differential settlement issues. This paper presents a case study of the preloading treatment design of a road embankment at a site in Wentworth Point, NSW, underlain by soft reclaimed and alluvial sediments between 12-20 m deep. Ground improvement through preloading and surcharging was proposed for the new road infrastructure servicing the development buildings, in lieu of piled foundations or rigid inclusions adopted for neighbouring developments. By using clusters of investigation (boreholes, CPT, sDMT) with laboratory testing, detailed ground profile interpretation was possible to develop Finite Element models to predict soft soil creep model under proposed treatments. During the ground treatment period, the contractor and design team adopted an observational method in determining the treatment period, following a set monitoring regime and a response plan. This case study includes a discussion on the considerations and lessons learned in pursuing a more sustainable foundation solution in soft soil including monitored impacts of Prefabricated Vertical Drain Installation and the value of plotting data differently to see what is happening through a different

In northern China, abundant summer rainfall and a higher water table can weaken the soil due to salt heave, collapsibility, and increased moisture absorption, thus the chlorine saline soil (silty clay) needs to be stabilized prior to use in road embankments. To optimize chlorine saline soil stabilizing programs, unconfined compressive strength tests were conducted on soil treated with five different stabilizers before and after soaking, followed by field compaction test and unconfined compressive strength test on a trial road embankment. In situ testing were performed with the stabilized soils in an expressway embankment, and the results demonstrated that the stabilized soil with lime and SH agent (an organic stabilizer composed of modified polyvinyl alcohol and water) is suitable for road embankments. The appropriate addition ratio of stabilized soil is 10% lime and 0.9% SH agent. SH agent wrapped soil particles, filled soil pores, and generated a silk-like web to improve the moisture stability, strength, and stress-strain performance of stabilized soil.