Reinforced Soil Walls and Slope Reinforcement
2020
RICHARDS BAY - KWAZULU-NATAL - South Africa
RICHARDS BAY MINERALS VALLEY TERMINALS
VALLEY TERMINAL
The ground was too wet and too soft even for pedestrian access
The rolls of ParaLinkā¢ 300 were unrolled into position and then covered with str
The limiting factor was the availability to provide a structural cover at the sa
Problem
Two 5000 mĀ² warehouses for storage of thousands of tons of sulphate had to be built on of low bearing, silty, estuarine area. The ground was unable to carry the high loads and engineering solution was needed to provide a suitable foundation to carry the large loads as economically and possible and with the fast construction program.
Solution
A piling solution to meet the loading requirements was ruled out as to slow and to expensive. A raft foundation of ParaLinkā¢ 300 basal reinforcement laid on a pre-consolidated base using the dynamic compaction and replacement method was found to be the best solution for this problem. ParaLinkā¢ 300 reinforcement did not only offer a fast and sound engineering solution, but a cost analysis showed that this alternative provided a huge cost saving as well. Benefits The laying of ParaLinkā¢ 300 is easy and simply entails unrolling the roll of ParaLinkā¢ 300 onto well prepared ground and then cover with a selected granular fill, compacted as per specification. The rate of construction was therefore very quick, the contractor was able to lay an average of 1000mĀ² of ParaLinkā¢ 300 per day and completed the 11 000 sq metres raft foundation in six weeks on time and on budget. A traditional piled foundation would have not made the project feasible, both in terms of cost and time.
