Highway, road, and airfield construction on weak soils is costly endeavor. Re-use of agricultural waste is widely employed as a stabilizing agent to improve engineering properties of these soils. In this study, rice husk ash (RHA), a by-product of incineration of husk from rice production, was used as a potential stabilizer. The water absorption and retention rate of the stabilizer, denoted as W-ab, is determined by measuring the amount of water that is absorbed and retained by the stabilizer in relation to its initial dry mass. The study involved treatingAo clay, imitating a dredged soil with highwater content, at various addition ratios (ARHA). Diverse curing periods were applied to assess the liquid limits (w(L)), plastic limits (w(P)), and cone index (q(c)) of the treated clays. Compaction characteristics were also determined for several ARHA and different curing periods. The test results show an increase in both w(L) and w(P) with decrease in plastic index (I-p) with increase in ARHA, but no remarkable change in w(L) and w(P) associated with curing. Compaction characteristics show a decline in rho(dmax) and increase in wopt with increase in ARHA, but no notable changes in rho(dmax) and wopt with cured samples. Increase in q(c) with ARHA, but no noteworthy change in q(c) with curing was discerned through cone index test. The trends for curing observed in the above test results were consistent with that observed for W-ab. The results were then modified based on the W-ab of stabilizer. The measured water content (w) and liquidity index (IL) were modified to account for absorbed water (w*), which gave a better correlation with q(c) than w. The compaction characteristics were also modified based on Wab, ARHA and the results suggest that treated clays were able to achieve modified dry density (rho(dmax)*) at the same values of modified water content (w(opt)*).