Panel discussion: Site characterization aspects of Piedmont residual soils in Eastern United States

Residual soils of the Piedmont geology consist of silts and fine sands derived from the in-place weathering of parent schist, gneiss, and granite bedrock. Conventional soil classification systems are not particularly suited to these geomaterials because of their high fines content. The small-strain stiffness of Piedmont residuum is characterized by geophysical methods and used in the evaluation of static load tests on axial drilled shaft foundations. Supplemental results from insitu penetration tests are also presented for these materials.