Impact of expansive soils on near surface buried utility

Much of our buried utility infrastructure, especially in urban environments, lies in within 1 or 2 m of the surface and in many cities this zone often contains soils that exhibit high swell/shrink potentials. As a result, seasonal changes have the potential to dramatically affect the integrity of buried utility, ultimately leading to premature failure. This project will examine the key mechanisms involved modelled through laboratory and numerical studies. From this methods to safeguard the longer term integrity of buried utility will be developed.
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