THE PROBLEM
Worse than expected soils (fibrous silty peats with sand pockets) were exposed during the construction of the car park areas of a garden centre development.
THE SOLUTION
A Tensar mechanically stabilised layer, incorporating multiple layers of TriAxTM geogrids, was used to help mitigate the potential differential settlement that could occur under the car park areas.
PROJECT DESCRIPTION
A new garden centre was under construction on the outskirts of Southport in Merseyside. As site clearance and topsoil removal was carried out around the car park area, the exposed formation was worse than expected and consisted of fibrous silty peats, with pockets of sand – characteristic of the area of Southport. Concern was raised by both the contractor and scheme engineers about the potential for post-construction differential settlement. Tensar International was contacted and asked to provide on-site advice and to propose a solution.
Tensar TriAx geogrids, with their equilateral triangular-shaped apertures which form a matrix of stable hexagons provide excellent multi-directional stiffness when placed within compacted granular fill. The resulting mechanically stabilised layer (MSL) helps to control differential settlement by forming a flexurally stiff composite layer that helps to smooth out any potential profile irregularities.
