In order to provide the design criteria, the characteristics of consolidation for soft ground improvement have been investigated using the field banking test performed by the vertical drain method at the northern container section in Busan New Port. Field test results indicated that the estimated degree of consolidation in design stage decreased by about 7% compared with the measured one. This difference is attributed to the fact that the conservative geological properties were applied with relatively high amount of maximum clay mixture ratio during the design stage. Based on this findings, another laboratory oedometer test was implemented to consider various combination of mixture ratio. It was found that the consolidation degree increased in accordance with the increase of sand/silt mixture ratio. Also, the proportion of 10%, 50%, and 40% for sand, silt, and clay, respectively, was observed as the best combination of mixture ratio to the actual measurement, which is very similar to the average grain size distribution in the banking test area. Therefore, it is suggested that the overall geological characteristics as well as the grain size distribution should be considered in design stage to improve the soft ground that contains mixture of sand, silt, and clay.