A highway embankment is to be constructed over a deposit of soft, saturated marine clay with an undrained shear strength ($s_u$) of $25\text{ kPa}$. The engineer decides to install stone columns using the Wet Vibro-Replacement method to increase bearing capacity and accelerate consolidation.

A single-story commercial building is planned on a site underlain by $8\text{ meters}$ of firm but compressible silty clay ($s_u = 45\text{ kPa}$). The water table is relatively low. The project has strict environmental constraints regarding slurry run-off.

Following the installation of stone columns beneath a large circular oil storage tank, settlement monitoring reveals that the total settlement of the tank is significantly less than what the original soft clay would have allowed.

In the same oil storage tank project (Case Study 3), piezometers installed in the soft clay between the stone columns show that the excess pore water pressure dissipates rapidly, much faster than predicted by 1-D vertical consolidation theory.

A contractor attempts to install stone columns in a deposit of highly sensitive, organic "peat-like" clay with an extremely low undrained shear strength ($s_u < 10\text{ kPa}$). Upon loading the test embankment, the foundation fails excessively, and the embankment sinks.

Stone columns are designed to support a square spread footing for a heavy column load. The columns are installed through $4\text{ meters}$ of soft clay but terminate within the clay layer, $2\text{ meters}$ above a dense gravel bearing stratum. During proof loading, the footing settles dramatically without significant bulging of the columns.