Monitoring and analysis of settlement and stability of an embankment dam constructed in stages on soft ground

 This study is concerned with Karameh dam, an earth-fill dam constructed on soft ground. It is located on Wadi Mallaha adjacent to the Jordan River on the eastern side of the Jordan Rift Valley. The project involved 11.2 million m3 of zoned earth fill, about 6 million m3 of excavation, a spillway and draw-off structures. The total height of the dam is 45 m and the total capacity of the reservoir 55 million m3. The construction of the dam on soft ground generated positive excess pore-water pressures within the underlying foundation soils. The dam was constructed in stages to achieve the required level of safety and to monitor/control the settlement development. The study reported here involved analysis, assessment and interpretation of the geological, geotechnical and monitoring data obtained during the staged construction of the Karameh embankment dam. Available soil mechanics models related to 1-D, 2-D and 3-D consolidation theory, undrained settlement, stress history and normalised soil engineering properties were used in the study. The overall stability of the Karameh dam embankment and foundations was evaluated using effective stress analysis (ESA) and total stress analysis (TSA) methods.