The paper presents the application of the finite element method into the modelling of soil arching. The phenomenon plays fundamental role in soil-shell flexible structures behaviour. To evaluate the influence of arching on a pressure reduction, a plain strain trapdoor under a shallow layer of backfill was simulated. The Coulomb-Mohr plasticity condition and the nonassociated flow rule were used for the soil model. The research examines the impact of the internal friction angle and the influence of the backfill layer thickness on the value of soil arching. The carried out analyses indicate that the reduction of pressures acting on a structure depends on the value of the internal friction angle, which confirms the earlier research. For a shallow backfill layer however, the reduction is only a local phenomenon and can influence only a part of the structure.