Bearing Capacity Determination Using Plate Load Test in Calabar, South- Eastern Nigeria Tamunonengiyeofori Warmate Geostrat International Services Limited, www.geostratinternational. com e-mail: nengiye@yahoo.co.uk ABSTRACT The study Evaluates the use Plate Load Test in ascertaining the Safe Bearing Capacity of the a Site in Calabar, Niger Delta. The area depicts a Coastal Plain Environment with typical sandy and clayey formation. Four Plate Load Test Was carried out within the Area of Investigation, with load settlement Curve which indicates a firm to Stiff Partial Cohesive Soil. An average Safe Bearing Capacity Value of 162.5KN/m 2 with permissible settlement of 25mm obtained from the Plate Load Test Correlates reasonably with the approximate unconfined Compression Strength of 155KN/m 2 of the soil. Also geotechnical Parameters of the soil reflects the nature of the Load Settlement Curve obtained from the test Points. Statiscal Analysis carried out, shows a very low level of dispersion of the results obtained by the Plate load Test Method within the area of Investigation as indicated by the Coefficient of Variation value of 4%. This indicates the high reliability of the method. KEYWORDS: Plate Load, Safe Bearing Capacity, Calabar, Niger delta, Settlement INTRODUCTION The Ultimate Bearing Capacity of soils which is essential in the design of foundation for infrastructures, can be determined either by laboratory or in-stitu methods. This factor is necessary for the design and Construction of foundation structures (Nwakwola and Warmate, 2014). The Ultimate Bearing Capacity, as well as the allowable (safe) bearing capacity based on tolerable settlement consideration can be effectively evaluated from field load test (Braja M . Das, 1990). Load Settlement Curve generated from the Plate Load Test, helps in the extrapolation of sensible average bearing capacity where the soil does not exhibit significant variation The Study evaluates the Safe Bearing capacity of soil in part of Calabar in the Niger Delta, which is characterizing by coastal plain sand, using the Plate Load Test Method. An average tolerable settlement of 25mm and a foundation footing of 1m was adopted in the Bearing Capacity Computation, due to the common practice in Foundation Engineering design to limit permissible settlement for isolated footing to 25.4mm and 40-65 mm for raft foundation on sandy soil (Skempton and MacDonald, 1956). Comparison of field curves with typical curves gives us an idea of the type of soil. - 4577 -