Soft Ground Improvement at the Rampal Coal Based Power Plant Connecting Road Project in Bangladesh

Abstract

Preloading with vertical sand drain (VSD) is presented as a soil improvement method in this paper. The work is based on a real life road (4 lane and 2 slow moving lanes) construction project carried out in Rampal sub-district of Bagerhat, Khulna, Bangladesh.  The construction sequences and the basic design example of VSD for embankment works on very soft clay soil are discussed in this paper. This paper presents soft ground improvement using VSD including VSD installation, preloading techniques, settlement and stability, design calculation, observational method and analysis of monitoring data.  No extra load has been used; preloading has been carried out with the self-weight of road in combination with fill embankment.  Soil treated with VSD, has resulted in improvement of soil settlement.