## 8 Conclusions  
The importance of road widening has increased as the construction of entirely new roads causes disturbance in the lives of humans and disruption of land and environment. However, differential settlement develops due to the widening of old embankments over weak sections of roads. Such problems have not previously been presented in detail in terms of a geotechnical investigation and the prediction of differential settlement under load variations. This research study has presented an insight into the N-120 project in the Sindh province of Pakistan as a case study. In this work, input parameters for numerical analysis in the Abaqus software are calculated by geotechnical investigation. In this study, two-dimensional finite element software is used to investigate the mechanism of differential settlement in widened embankments with and without the application of different treatment techniques. Traffic loading highly influences the differential settlement; therefore, the final settlements are studied under the traffic load conditions of 20 kPa, 40 kPa, and 80 kPa. Some conclusions can be drawn as follows:  
1. It is evident that the maximum settlement increases, without applying the reinforcement, by 77% when the traffic load increases from 20 kPa to 80 kPa.
2. The foundation and pavement settlements are directly proportional. Therefore, controlling differential settlement of the foundation surface in the weak road section can prevent pavement deformations.
3. Application of geogrid and cement-fly-ash-gravel (CFG) pile reinforcement can reduce inhomogeneous deformation of the subgrade.
4. The differential settlement due to road widening is considerably reduced by the use of lightweight foamed concrete (LWFC) as embankment fill in the widened portion. The final settlement decreased by 35% due to the use of lightweight foamed concrete (LWFC) as embankment fill in the widened portion at a 20 kPa load.  
Figure 22: Settlements under load variation.  
**Author Contributions:** Conceptualization, S.J.A. and X.W.; data curation, S.J.A.; formal analysis, S.J.A.; investigation, S.J.A., X.W. and M.J.I.; methodology, S.J.A. and X.W.; project administration, S.J.A., X.W. and M.J.I.; resources, X.W.; software, S.J.A. and X.W.; supervision, X.W. and M.J.I.; validation, S.J.A.; visualization, S.J.A.; writing--original draft, S.J.A.; writing--review and editing, X.W. and M.J.I. All authors have read and agreed to the published version of the manuscript.  
This research received no external funding.  
**Informed Consent Statement:** Not applicable.  
**Data Availability Statement:** Data will be available with [PERSON] at [EMAIL_ADDRESS]. Content related details will be provided on request.  
**Acknowledgments:** We appreciate the support, input, and motivation from our teachers and friends from China and Pakistan. We acknowledge Highway Research and Training Institute (HRTC), Burhan, Pakistan; Research Institute of Highway, Ministry of Transport, China; China Road and Bridge Cooperation (CRBC), Beijing, China; Chang'an University, Xi'an, China; National University of Sciences and Technology (NUST), Islamabad; National Highway Authority (NHA), Pakistan; Laboratory of Quaid e Awam University of Engineering Sciences and Technology (QUEST), Nawabshah, Sindh, Pakistan to facilitate execution of this research.  
**Conflicts of Interest:** The authors declare no conflicts of interest.