Soil improvement and construction methods in peat - Geotechnics of Organic Soils and Peat - page 123

Figure 6.2 The settlement problem in peat.

Figure 6.3 Avoidance technique.

A number of construction options that can be applied to peat are stated by Edil
(2003):

•

Avoidance: consider marginal lands; as mentioned above, this is typically the first
choice if feasible.

• Excavation - displacement/replacement: practical typically up to 5m depth.

• Ground improvement and/or reinforcement to enhance soil strength and stiffness:

this refers to any method or technique that improves the engineering properties
of soil, such as shear strength, compressibility, stiffness or permeability. Raju
(2009) classified soil improvement methods according to the following principles:
(i) consolidation (e.g. prefabricated vertical drains and surcharge, vacuum con-
solidation, stone columns), (ii) chemical modification (e.g. deep soil mixing, jet
grouting, injection grouting), (iii) densification (e.g. vibro-compaction, dynamic
compaction, compaction grouting) and (iv) reinforcement (e.g. stone columns,
geosynthetic reinforcement). The majority of companies and geoengineers work-
ing in these fields agree that soil improvement methods are usually done based on