The design of the industrial port of Sepetiba, 50 km south of Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, required a detailed evaluation of the underlying soft soil deposits. Initially, on the basis of laboratory tests, it was proposed to remove approximately 3.7 × 106 m3 of the very soft deposits in the stockpile area by dredging and substitute with hydraulic sand fill. Subsequently, in view of the cost of such a measure, a large program of field investigations was initiated to study the in situ characteristics of the soft clay to evaluate whether replacement of this material and (or) ground improvement was necessary. As part of this investigation, two large identically instrumented test fills (test fills B and D), each 65 m2 in plan and 5 m high, with 3:1 slopes were constructed. Test fill B was constructed over natural ground, whereas the subsoil beneath test fill D was treated with stone columns. The instrumentation for each test fill consisted of piezometers, deep settlement plates, surface settlement plates, and inclinometers. This paper provides a description of the field investigations, observations on installation of stone columns, analysis of instrumentation, a comparison of the behaviour of the two test fills, and a discussion on load tests on individual stone columns. Key words : case history, embankment, ground improvement, instrumentation, soft clay, stone columns.
