Abstract: Low strength and large deformation resulted from salt heaving, salt dissolution and water absorption of saline soil could be treated by reinforcement with anti-corrosive wheat straw. Light compaction test and compressive strength test on saline soil and reinforced saline soil with wheat straw shows that: first of all, with the increase of wheat straw length and reinforcement ratio, the optimum water content hardly decreases, and the maximum dry density increases slightly. Second, the compressive strength and deformation resistance of soil is improved by reinforcement with wheat straw. A wheat straw length of 30 mm and reinforcement ratio of 0.25% are suitable for samples of 102 mm in diameter. Moreover, the stress-strain curves of reinforced soil are of strain softening when water content is less than the optimum value, and of strain hardening when larger than the optimum value, which are the same as that of saline soil. Finally, in small strain section, the stress-strain curves are close to each other, while  in large strain section, the distance grow larger, which suggests that the reinforcement only functions with large strain in the soil. It's proved that reinforcement with wheat straw improves the compressive strength and deformation resistance of saline soil, and the reinforced soil has a good compaction effect for filling road embankment.

Key words: light compaction test, reinforced saline soil, compressive strength, vertical stress strain