____________________________________________________________________________________________ *Corresponding author: E-mail: imoism@gmail.com; British Journal of Applied Science & Technology 4(36): 5000-5013, 2014 ISSN: 2231-0843 SCIENCEDOMAIN international www.sciencedomain.org Evaluation of the Geotechnical Properties of Residual Soils in Two Different Basement Complex Areas of Nigeria Imoukhuede M. Idehai 1* , Ayibawari O. Egai 1 and Michael E. Okiotor 2 1 Department of Geology, University of Benin, Benin City, Nigeria. 2 Department of Geology and Petroleum Studies, University of Western Delta, Oghara, Nigeria. Authors’ contributions This work was carried out in collaboration among all the authors. All authors read and approved the final manuscript. Article Information DOI: 10.9734/BJAST/2014/12679 Editor(s): (1) Ahmed Fawzy Yousef, Geology Department, Desert Research Center, Egypt. (2) Harry E. Ruda, Stan Meek Chair Professor in Nanotechnology, University of Toronto, Centre for Advanced Nanotechnology, University of Toronto, Canada. Reviewers: (1) Carolina dos Santos Batista Bonini, Agronomy Graduate Course, São Paulo State University, Brasil. (2) Anonymous, Brazil. Complete Peer review History: http://www.sciencedomain.org/review-history.php?iid=700&id=5&aid=6305 Received 12 th July 2014 Accepted 18 th September 2014 Published 1 st October 2014 ABSTRACT Rocks from the Basement Complex areas of Nigeria weather to produce residual soils of varying geomechanical properties. Two such soils from the zone of accumulation were collected from Ore (Ors) and Abuja (Abs). The soils were understudied for their suitability for use as construction materials by subjecting to geotechnical analyses in order to evaluate their index and engineering properties. Ors with clays, silts, sands and gravel of (17, 22, 60 & 01) % respectively, and specific gravity of 2.57 g/cm 3 is classified as a silty sand with clays whereas Abs is clayey sands with gravels. Their index properties are in the order: LL, (43.45 & 51.7) %; PI, (12.14 & 31.57) %; linear shrinkage, (8.57 & 12.1) %; Original Research Article