Aerial view of the site showing different stages of consolidation.
The wall was constructed using a 'wraparound' design, utilising sandbags for the front face to temporarily retain the cohesive and granular fills. The ends of the cohesive trial wall were retained using conventional reinforced soil blocks, and the wall was raised using a staged construction technique. Clay slurry was prepared in a pit adjacent to the wall and poured in 300mm layers.
Dewatering of super-soft clay to construct a vertical reinforced soil structure.
Each lift was constructed and dewatered vertically by electroosmosis applied
via horizontally placed EKG electrodes. Once a lift had been successfully
treated then the next lift was constructed, and so on until the full height
of the wall was achieved. After dewatering by electroosmosis, EKG was left
in situ to function as the primary reinforcing element.
Construction of a vertical soil structure with super soft clay. In
each lift the previous cathode becomes the anode and the previous anode is
left in place as a reinforcing element (arrows depict upwards movement of
water).
