Abstract: The thick marine mucky soil in the Pearl River Delta region is an unconsolidated mucky soil with high moisture content, high compressibility, low shear strength and high organic content, so it is difficult to provide a safe support for the foundation excavations. This paper analyzes the common supporting types of the shallow foundation excavation, namely, sloped open cut, soil nailing wall, steel sheet pile, soil-mixing wall, gravity cement soil retaining wall, etc. These supports have advantages of no internal support, short construction duration, low project cost, and can maximize the self-supporting ability of soil layers. Deformation control is critical to the success of the support.

Key words: Deep Marine Mucky Soils, Shallow Foundation Excavation, Supporting Structure Selection, Control Measures