Evaluation of the Current Situation of Road Embankments Carried out on the Latakia-Aryha Road Site

Abstract

Road fills are an important element in the road and transportation system and may not receive enough attention in design and implementation alike, but if we review the foundations of fill design, we find that they are traditional and depend on the relationships of construction mechanics. However, in recent years, the design has begun to rely on engineering programs based on mathematical methods such as differential equations, finite differences, and finite elements (adopted in our research), which have provided more accurate solutions in the design of fills and predicting their behavior in the long term under the influence of dynamic loads and dead loads alike. The aim of this study is to evaluate the current status of three road backfills implemented on the Lattakia-Aryha highway, taking into account the properties of the materials involved in the formation (natural soil layers and backfill materials), in addition to the backfill engineering and groundwater conditions, and thus activating the joint work of all structural elements using the Finite Element Method (FEM) using the Plaxis 2D program. The backfills achieved acceptable safety factors, which were met by the most dangerous sliding surfaces, respectively: the first backfill with a minimum safety factor of 1.4909, the second backfill with a minimum safety factor of 1.5712, and the third backfill with a minimum safety factor of 1.9181.