Abstract:The head silt basin of the Yellow River Diversion to Qingdao Project features large annual siltation volume, high dredging cost and extensive land occupation. Adopting the technical route of sampling experimental determination property quantification, this study carries out four core tests including sediment sieve analysis, liquid and plastic limit test, compaction test and California Bearing Ratio (CBR) test. The results show that the fineness modulus of local Yellow River sediment ranges from 0.74 to 0.81, belonging to superfine sand with a silt content of 17%~22.32% and poor gradation. The liquid limit is 32.4%~33.4%, plastic limit 18.0%~19.0%, and plasticity index 14.3~14.5, which is classified as low-liquid-limit silty clay. The optimum moisture content is 8.8%~9.2% and the maximum dry density is 1.74~1.77 g/cm3, with compaction characteristics consistent with low-liquid-limit silty clay. After mixing 5% quicklime into pure sediment, the CBR value reaches 16.9% at a penetration of 2.5 mm, complying with the specification requirements for highway subgrade filling materials.