Expansive Soils Cover Spacious Areas in KSA: Prof 

      Concerned over the mysteriousness besetting expansive soil behavior, King Saud University established the expansive soil chair to explore the far-flung swelling areas in the kingdom, said Dr. Musleh Al-Shamrany, Chair Head, in an interview. 

      Explaining the expansive soil, Muslih says it is a soil subject to swelling and shrinkage, varying in proportion to the amount of moisture present in the soil. The size of some pure types of expansive soil may swell fifteen times compared to the dried out forms. The soil, in general, is likely to swell in arid and hot areas. 

      Shedding lights on the chair, he said it was established thanks to an initiative by Eng. Abdullah Buqshan, a big businessman. It is the first chair in kind to be financed by individuals. It helps expel mysteriousness besetting the behavior of swelling soil in the KSA. 

      Summarizing the chair objectives, he says it shall provide a milieu boosting up the scientific research. It shall offer training on geotechnology for the specialists. It shall harbor the state-of-the-art technologies harnessed for rectifying the expansive soil and testing its behavior.  

      The chair shall provide consulting for governmental and nongovernmental   bodies in return for fees to be earmarked for funding the course in future. It shall develop Saudi Arabian building regulations pertaining to building upon the swelling soils. 

      Talking about what it takes to rendering the chair success, Al-Muslih said the chair would provide state-of-the-art equipment for the laboratory to lure postgraduates. It looked for the best international researcher in this field to head the chair and recruited a professor from the Indian Institute for Science in Bangalore. 

      Pinpointing far-flung areas of expansive soil in KSA, Al-Muslih says they are in Al-Ghat, Tabuk, Medina, Taimaa, Al-Gasuim, Az-Zulfy, Al-Jauf, Hail, Al-Hufuf, Al-Qatif, Sharorah and some eastern parts of Riyadh. Some population had to move out since the costs of rectifying the ill-doomed houses were too high.  

      Showing the risks of swelling soils on buildings, Al-Muslih says when a soil is saturated with water, its size enlarges generating a momentum sometimes exceeding 1000 kilo Pascal/square meter. This damages blocks, road, bridges, pipelines and inflexible facilities. The damages caused by the expansive soil are larger than damages caused by hurricanes, earthquakes, and floods in one go. The technical term for this case is the cancer of soil mechanics.