Closure to "Staged Construction and Settlement of a Dam Founded on Soft Clay" by Sukru Ozcoban, Mehmet M. Berilgen, Havvanur Kilic, Tuncer B. Edil, and I. Kutay Ozaydin

The authors thank the discussers for their additional contribution to the subject matter. They have illustrated the use of the finite-difference method (FDM) as a simplified approach. However, the limitations they listed for the FDM are handled effectively in the finite-element method (FEM) that we employed in our analysis. In particular, the modeling of the complex filling history allowing the determination of stress changes due to several fills was important. With the expanding availability of verified commercial FEM codes, e.g., PLAXIS, we expect more realistic and comprehensive modeling of field soil behavior to become common in engineering practice.