As a material, soft clay poses many challenges to geotechnical engineers. The
material responds in a spectacular manner to stress changes. The paper describes the behaviour of five embankments constructed on lightly overconsolidated soft Malaysian marine clays. The main finding is that the clay response to construction is not truly undrained. Significant consolidation develops initially in the overconsolidated clay, which becomes normally consolidated during construction. Undrained behaviour develops only in the normally consolidated clay during the initial stages of construction.