This paper summarizes the observed foundation settlements of several recently constructed Spanish quays. When the quay walls are founded on soft soils, the settlements observed could be larger than 50 cm. The paper indicates the values of the ground deformations parameters obtained by the back-analysis of the observed settlements and compares those parameters with the original values used to predict settlements at the design stage. The predictions of the movements and the back-analysis have been made using numerical models. In addition, if the monitoring of the movements is good enough, it is possible to study the evolution of the consolidation of the natural ground under different loads.