Performance of Soil-Bearing Spread Footings Supporting Highway Structures

Abstract Soil-bearing spread footings (SBSF) are becoming an appealing alternative to support highway structures. SBSF have many advantages compared to deep foundations, such as cost-saving, expedited construction, simple design, environmentally friendly, and less maintenance. This paper aims to evaluate highway structures' performance supported by SBSF at four sites in Ohio. This evaluation's outcomes are recommendations for future use of spread footings and potential limitations on their use. The project team reviewed the documented performance data, evaluated existing footings' performance, and compared them to the structural performance criteria. The team also examined the calculated settlement, provided an estimate of the tolerable structure settlement, compared the measured settlement to the predicted settlement, and compared performance to soil conditions. The collected data and the field review of all four sites included in this research showed that SBSF performed as designed, and there were no signs of settlements and/or rideability issues. SBSF were constructed following the manuals and procedures by the Ohio Department of Transportation (ODOT) and performed adequately. The paper provides recommendations for the method of settlement monitoring and the Ohio department of transportation plan notes.