The project of “Research on Key Techniques of In-situ Testing of Deformation Characteristics of Coastal Soft Soil and Control of Subgrade Accumulative Settlement'' undertaken by the team from the College won the first prize of the 2019 Science and Technology Award of China Highway Society, outperforming other 550 projects.

The construction of transportation facilities in China has entered a period of rapid development. Deep and saturated soft soil is widely distributed in the southeast coastal areas, and a large number of highways and other road projects have been built or are under construction on the soft soil foundation. In the process of road engineering design, construction, operation, etc., the design parameters of soft soil foundation are often unreliable or incomplete, and the design is constantly changed during the construction. The main reason is that the determination of soft soil parameters and the design method are different from actual conditions. At the same time, the soft soil foundation of road engineering undergoes long-term cyclical effects of traffic dynamic loads during the operation, causing problems such as excessive cumulative settlement or uneven settlement, and softening of rigidity. Many of the above reasons have caused technical problems such as low reliability of road design parameters in coastal soft soil areas, inaccurate road settlement calculations, lack of settlement control criteria, and further catastrophes such as excessive road deformation or instability.

This project updates the traditional static cone penetration test technology, develops a new generation of digital multi-functional pore pressure static cone penetration test system, and proposes a new generation of large-scale multi-functional digital pore pressure static penetration test system. It formulates corresponding technical regulations, builds a complete set of technology for in-situ testing of geotechnical engineering CPTU, conducts research on the dynamic characteristics of soft soil under complex stress paths of traffic loads, and proposes corresponding settlement calculation methods and control criteria. The project results can be used to predict the long-term operation settlement of soft ground roads under complex static and dynamic loads, improve and optimize soft ground overload preloading treatment methods, and provide theoretical basis for selecting design parameters, optimizing road design, and reducing construction and maintenance costs.