<p>The aim of this paper is to study the possibility of enhancing the structural capacity of an existing footing resting on a soft clayey soil by increasing its reinforced width. The study focuses on the effect of the added width on the soil reaction, load transfer, bending moment, and shear forces. A validated finite element model has been utilized to address the aim of this study. The cases of increasing the existed footing width from one side and two sides are considered. In addition, the research also focuses on the effect of the dowel reinforcement, as well as the bond between the concrete layers. The results showed that the load carrying capacity increased steadily by increasing the footing width on both sides. On the other hand, the increase of footing width from one side showed no significance improvement in the structural capacity due to the effect of load eccentricity. The results also showed that dowels were inactive when a cohesive bond is utilized between old and new concrete because the new concrete was mainly carried by the cohesive layer. However, the dowels were found to be fully mobilized when the bond is friction only. The results are useful for practitioners who are looking for innovative techniques to improve the capacity of an existing footing due to the need to increase building wait.</p>