Abstract of thesis: In the recent years, one of the main problems facing the geotechnical engineers in many projects

is reinforcement of the weak soil layers used as foundations and road sub-base. An important issue regarding the soil reinforcement is to use the waste tire shreds or chips. The scrap tire usage in reinforcing the soil layers may provide a proper solution for one of the main environmental issues as currently engineers are facing. The main purpose of this research is the evaluation of the California bearing capacity (CBR) of gravel-sand mixture soil and to investigate the mechanical properties of such soils as mixed with waste tire shreds and to obtain the optimum percentage of the tire shred. Two different soil types regarding their grain sizes were tested namely, soil one and two. These two different types of soils were randomly mixed with 2.5%, 5.0%, 7.5%, 10% of scrap tire shreds of sizes 1cm x 1cm. The results of CBR tests showed that the usage of waste tire shreds in soil type-A has reduced the CBR values compared to the un-reinforced soil samples. While usage of waste tire shreds by 2.5% in soil type-B has increased CBR values but further increase of tire shreds has resulted in reduction of CBR values compared to the un-reinforced soil samples as tested.