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An important priority for the Sarawak State of Malaysia is ofproviding road networks to enhance connectivity and economic developmentthroughout the State. However, the more populated coastal areas along the SouthChina Sea are covered by peat and other soft soil deposits. Construction of roads insuch areas requires extensive ground improvement by preloading that is timeconsuming and at times also expensive. Electro-osmotic consolidation is a wellknown ground improvement technique for improvement of fine grained soft soilswhere a direct current introduced into the soil induces electro-osmotic flow of waterfrom the anode to the cathode. Experiments were carried out in the laboratory to studythe feasibility of electro-osmotic consolidation of an organic soil sample from NorthSarawak. Commercially available prefabricated electric vertical drains were used aselectrodes. This paper presents the experimental set-up, geotechnical characterizationof the soil sample and the results of the tests conducted with incremental voltagegradient. Voltage and current were measured to assess the power consumption. Thewater content decreased and the shear strength increased significantly after 8 days ofelectrokinetic treatment. The results indicated a good potential for the application ofelectro-osmotic consolidation in organic soils.

This study aims to introduce alternative design procedures for a flexible pavement base course by utilizing ultimate strength criteria with the sophisticated laboratory results of base course materials. Based on the design protocol, only the design criteria of the horizontal tension and the vertical compression occur at the bottom of the asphalt layer and at the top of the subgrade, respectively are employed. The real behavior of a base course under traffic loads has been rarely accounted into the pavement design protocol. Nowadays, traffic is growing in terms of magnitude and frequency far beyond the past causing premature deterioration in base course layers leading to major damage in pavements. The study presents theoretically a more suitable approach of stress and strain distributions in a flexible pavement using the finite element method. The effects of uniform design pressure and material attributes generated when a vehicle travels, namely the stress and strain contributions between tires and pavement layers, were investigated. Moreover, new design criteria for an unbound granular layer were defined as the ultimate strength design and the bearing capacity factor resulting from the application of the shallow foundation bearing capacity concept within the California Bearing Ratio (CBR) results.