Determination of the in-situ engineering properties of foundation materials has always been arnchallenge for practicing engineers in developing countries. Especially in a country like Ethiopia,rnwhere construction of small scale buildings like residential, warehouses, health centres, whichrnare thought to solve the problem of the society in general, is growing in a fast rate. Debre-rnMarkos is one of the fastest developing towns in Ethiopia, which is exposed to rapid civilrnengineering works like high-rise buildings, and large residential buildings, banks, etc. Since thernmunicipality (sub-city) does not force the designers to conduct soil investigation for buildingsrnless than G+4, designers depend on simple visual inspection and then use the minimumrnrecommended presumptive bearing capacity by EBCS.Even some designers or companies do notrnconduct soil investigation for building greater than G+4. Some of these predictions may lead tornunexpected failures of structure or uneconomical design. To avoid such problems, this researchrnintroduces the use of Dynamic Cone Penetration (DCP) which is a simple test device that isrninexpensive, portable, and easy to operate and understand.rnIn this thesis, field tests were conducted by locally manufactured dynamic cone penetrationrnequipment from available materials. Laboratory tests needed to classify the soil and study thernparameters that affect the dynamic cone penetration index and undrained shear strength of soilrnwere also conducted. The data has been categorised in to two categories, correlation betweenrnundrained shear strength and dynamic cone penetration index has been developed. In additionrncorrelation between parameters that affect the DCPI and undrained shear strength of soil has alsornbeen developed. It has been found out that parameters like unconfined compression strength&rnliquidity index have influence on the Dynamic Cone Penetration Index (DCPI). These researchrnwork revealed that Undrained shear strength can be estimated by UCS= -209.5*ln (DCPI)rn+800.5 for red clay soils of Debre Markos and UCS= -7.1661*(DCPI) +416.82 for black clayrn(expansive) soils of Debre Markos in general. These correlations were used to develop bearingrncapacity equation based on the bearing capacity theory. The equation found were qult= -rn538.625ln (DCPI) +12058.086+ï§h for red clay soils of Debre Markos, qult= -18.423*(DCPI)rn+1071.64+ï§h for black clayey (expansive) soils of Debre Markos. The results are expected tornhave wide application in the construction sector