Soils in Construction, 5th Edition

For more than a quarter of a century, Soils in Construction has been an important resource for the teaching of the basics of soil mechanics, foundation design, and foundation construction to construction management students. The fifth edition continues this with extensive revisions to both the text and the accompanying graphics. The highlights of these changes are as follows:

• An expanded overview of the geology of soils and rocks (Chapters 1 and 2);
• Improved classification aids for the Unified system (Chapter 4);
• A more complete description of borrow and fill calculations (Chapter 8);
• Addition of a description of OSHA’s requirements for trench safety and configuration (Chapter 10);
• A completely rewritten description of pile driving and driven pile design and testing, including new material on pile dynamics and a new pile hammer chart (Chapter 11);
• Breakout of all of the existing examples and new examples added to the text, so that students and instructors can more readily follow methods for solving problem;
• Addition of SI units to some of the calculations.

Many other details of the text have been enhanced and improved as well.

This book was originally prepared as a teaching aid for a course in the Construction Engineering Management program in the Civil Engineering Department at Oregon State University. The purpose of the course was to introduce students to the nature of soils and to illustrate how soil materials may influence certain construction operations. The course was not design-oriented. It was a terminal geotechnical course specifically arranged to deal with soils in construction for those who did not contemplate further study of soil mechanics or foundation engineering. The book is, therefore, suited for use in other similar programs.

The book begins with an introduction to soil materials. In conjunction with the testing methods in Appendix A, the material presented provides the basic background for understanding soil behavior and how construction specifications relate to it. From here the book turns to soils in the construction contract. Specifications from example contracts influenced by soil materials are discussed, as is the application of principles of soil behavior to those specifications. The appendices contain both testing procedures designed to be used as instructional laboratory exercises (with references to similar standard testing methods) and a pile hammer chart.

Today persons with diverse responsibilities, such as contractors, owners, technicians, lawyers, and engineers from other specialties, interact with geotechnical design professionals. They often need to know and understand the designer’s language and concerns, and they need to understand how to apply selected principles of the geotechnical disciplines to their own work. It is to such individuals that this book is directed.

In addition, particular thanks are due to Greg Ohrn, Northern Arizona University; Leslie M. Gioja, Parkland College; Timothy W. Zeigler, Southern Polytechnic State University; Constantine A. Ciesielski, East Carolina University; and Ho-Yeong (Julian) Kang, Texas A&M University, for their assistance with the fifth edition text review.

More than any other kind of book, a textbook is a “work in progress” and this one is no exception. Instructors, students and readers can send their questions, comments and suggestions by visiting http://www.vulcanhammer.net/soils/ .

W.L.Schroeder
S.E. Dickenson
Don C. Warrington