Proceedings of the 4th Asian Regional Conference on Geosynthetics 651

June 17 - 20, 2008 Shanghai, China

APPLICATION OF PREFABRICATED VERTICAL DRAINS TO THE CHANGI LAND

RECLAMATION PROJECT, SINGAPORE

A. Arulrajah1, M.W. Bo2, J. Chu3 and H. Nikraz4

ABSTRACT: The Changi East Reclamation Project in the Republic of Singapore involved the filling of approximately
200 million cubic of sand for the land reclamation of a total area of about 2500 hectares. Land reclamation was carried
out using fill materials obtained from dredging granular material from the seabed at the borrow source. The ground
improvement technique which involved combination of prefabricated vertical drain (PVD) with preloading was
successfully applied in this project to improve the underlying compressible soils. The project comprises the installation
of prefabricated vertical drains and the subsequent placement of surcharge to accelerate the consolidation of the
underlying marine clay. In order to monitor the performance of ground improvement and to validate the performance of
the prefabricated vertical drain system, several geotechnical instruments were installed to monitor the degree of
consolidation at both area with PVD and area without PVD as control area. This paper provides a case study of the
ground improvement works carried out with prefabricated vertical drains at the Changi East Reclamation Project and
their subsequent performance assessment.

KEYWORDS: land reclamation, field instrumentation, ground improvement, prefabricated vertical drains

INTRODUCTION Settlement gauges including deep settlement gauges

From 1992 till mid 2004, the Changi East Reclama-
tion Project in the Republic of Singapore involved the
filling of approximately 200 million cubic of sand for the
reclamation of a total land area of about 2500 hectares.
The land reclamation works were carried out in 5 phases.
Land reclamation was carried out using fill materials
obtained from dredging granular material from the seabed
at the borrow source. The combination of prefabricated
vertical drain (PVD) with preloading ground improvement
technique was successfully applied in this project to
improve the underlying compressible soils. The project
comprises the installation of prefabricated vertical drains
and the subsequent placement of surcharge to accelerate
the consolidation of the underlying marine clay.
In the entire project, a total of 142 million linear
meters of vertical drains were installed making this one
of the largest projects in the world in which pre-
fabricated vertical drains were used. In order to monitor
the performance of ground improvement and to validate
the efficiency of the prefabricated vertical drain system
several geotechnical instruments were installed to
monitor the degree of consolidation at both area with
PVD and area without PVD as control area.
were installed at the top of each sub layers whereas
piezometers were installed at the centre of each com-
pressible sub layer in order to monitor the settlement and
pore pressure dissipation. Settlement and pore pressure
were monitored with close interval in the first three months
and wider interval at the later part of monitoring. Ultimate
settlements were predicted using the field settlement
results applying the Asaoka and hyperbolic methods.
This paper provides a case study of the ground
improvement works carried out with prefabricated vertical
drains at the Changi East Reclamation Project.
PREFABRICATED VERTICAL DRAINS
The prefabricated vertical drain (PVD) with preload-
ing method was considered the most feasible one and
this method was used in the project. The objective of
using the vertical drains with preloading technique is to
accelerate the rate of consolidation and to minimize
future settlement of the treated area under the future
dead and live loads. Soil improvement works is carried
out in such a way that a specified degree of primary
consolidation is designed to be attained within the desired
time frame by improving the soil drainage system.

1
Senior Lecturer, Swinburne University of Technology, Melbourne, AUSTRALIA. Email: aarulrajah@swin.edu.au
2
Director (Geo-services), DST Consulting Engineers, Thunder Bay, Ontario, CANADA. Email: drmwbo@yahoo.co.uk
3
Associate Professor, Nanyang Technological University, SINGAPORE. Email: CJCHU@ntu.edu.sg
4
Associate Professor, Curtin University of Technology, Perth, AUSTRALIA. Email: H.Nikraz@curtin.edu.au
652
The primary use of prefabricated vertical drains is to
accelerate consolidation to greatly decrease the duration
of consolidation process caused by embankment built
over soft soils. This will ensure that the final construction
can be completed in a reasonable time and with minimal
post construction settlement. Preloading increases the
effective stress and reduces the compressibility of weak
ground by forcing soft soils to consolidate. By doing so,
the consolidation process also improves the strength of
in-situ soft soils.
GEOTECHNICAL FIELD INSTRUMENTATION
Geotechnical instrumentation is the only means
available of providing continuous records of the ground
behavior from the point of instruments installation.
Without a proper geotechnical instrumentation method
or programme, it would be difficult to monitor at any
point of time the current degree of improvement of the
soil. By analyzing the instrument monitoring results, it is
possible to determine the degree of consolidation of the
foundation soil before allowing the removal of the
surcharge load and it is possible to ascertain the
achievement of required effective stress and to indicate
the necessity for remedial action.
In order to study the performance of compressible
soils under reclaimed fill, geotechnical instruments have
to be installed. Various geotechnical field instruments
were installed in instrumentation clusters to enable the
instruments functions to complement each other. All
instruments found in the instrument clusters were also
extended and protected throughout the surcharge placement
operations. In coastal land reclamation projects, instruments
were installed either off-shore prior to reclamation or on-
land after reclamation to the vertical drain installation
platform level.
Field instruments suitable for the study of
consolidation behavior of underlying soils and monitoring
of land reclamation works included surface settlement
plates, deep settlement gauges, multi-level settlement
gauges, liquid settlement gauges, pneumatic piezometers,
electric piezometers, open-type piezometers, water
standpipes, inclinometers, deep reference points and total
earth pressure cells. A total of 7246 geotechnical instru-
ments were installed at the Changi East Reclamation
Projects. Instrument monitoring was carried out at
regular intervals so that the degree of improvement could
be monitored and assessed throughout the period of the
soil improvement works for the project. Instruments
were monitored at close intervals of up to 3 times a week
during sandfilling and surcharge placement operations.
INSTRUMENTATION ASSESSMENT
Assessment of degree of consolidation could be
carried out by means of field instrument monitoring at
regular time intervals. Degree of improvement can be
monitored and assessed throughout the period. Two
simple instruments that can assess the degree of
consolidation are settlement plates and piezometers.
Details on assessment of degree of consolidation have
been discussed by Bo et al. (1997) and Arulrajah et al.
(2005, 2004a, 2004b).
Degree of consolidation for settlement gauges can be
computed based on the field settlement. Degree of
consolidation is defined as percentage of magnitude of
settlement that occurred at time t upon ultimate primary
consolidation settlement as indicated in Eq. 1. From
measured field settlement and predicted ultimate
settlement, degree of consolidation can be estimated.
Ultimate settlement can be predicted for marine clays
treated with vertical drains and preload by the Asaoka
(Asaoka 1978) or Hyperbolic (Tan 1995) methods.
Us (%) = St / Sα (1)
where St = field settlement at any time t; Sα = ultimate
settlement; and Us (%) = average degree of consolidation.
Piezometers are utilized to measure the pore pressure
in the soil. If regular monitoring is carried out to
measure the piezometric head together with static water
level, dissipation of excess pore pressure can be detected
and thus degree of consolidation can be assessed.
Average residual excess pore pressure is defined as ratio
of excess pore pressure at time t upon initial excess pore
pressure. Therefore degree of consolidation for a soil
element, Uu can be defined as shown in Eq. 2.
Uu (%) = 1- (Ut / Ui) (2)
where Uu (%) = degree of consolidation for a soil
element; Ut = the excess pore pressure at time t; and Ui =
initial excess pore pressure which is equal to the
additional load.
CASE STUDY AREA
Singapore marine clay at Changi is a quartenary
deposit that lies within valleys cut in the Old Alluvium.
The Case Study Area comprises of two distinct layers of
marine clay which are the “Upper Marine Clay” layer
and the “Lower Marine Clay” layer. The “Intermediate
Stiff Clay” layer separates these two distinct marine clay
layers.
The upper marine clay is soft with undrained shear
strength values ranging from 10 to 30 kPa. Marine or

organic matter is found in the upper marine clay. The
intermediate layer is a silty clay layer. The lower marine
clay is lightly overconsolidated with an undrained shear
strength varying from 30 to 50 kPa. It is not homo-
geneous but occasionally interbeded with sandy clay,
peaty clay and sand layers. Below the lower marine clay
is a stiff sandy clay layer locally known as Old Alluvium.
The characteristics of the marine clay found at Changi,
Singapore has been discussed previously by Bo et al.
(1997, 1998) and Arulrajah et al (2004a, 2004b).
The Case Study Area consists of a Vertical Drain
Area at which vertical drains were installed at 1.5 meters
spacing to depths of 35 meters, as well as an adjacent
Control Area where no vertical drains were installed.
This enabled comparisons to be made between an area
treated with vertical drains with an untreated area. Both
the areas were treated with the same height of surcharge
preload. Instruments were installed and monitored at
both the Vertical Drain Area and the Control Area. The
instruments in the Control Area were installed prior to
653
reclamation in off-shore instrument platforms. These
instruments were protected as the reclamation filling
works commenced in the area. Fig. 1 shows the geologi-
cal profile of the Case Study Area and the typical details
of on-land and adjacent off-shore field instrumentation
clusters.
Instruments in the Vertical Drain Area were installed
on-land at the vertical drain platform level of +4 m CD
just before or soon after vertical drain installation at 1.5
meter square spacing. Surcharge was subsequently placed
to +10 m CD. The analysis of the instrumentation results
was carried out for both the Vertical Drain Area and
Control Area after a monitoring period of about 26 months
which equates to a surcharging period of 20 months.
Fig. 2 shows the construction sequence of works at
the Case Study Area. The profile of the field
instrumentation elevations at the Case Study Area has
been recently described by Arulrajah et al. (2005, 2004a,
2004b).

Fig. 1 Geological profile and details of field instrumentation at Case Study Area
11
10
Ground Elevation (m CD)

9
8
7
6
Install v.d.
5
4
3
2 Ground Elevation (SP95)
1 Water Level (WS-20)
0
0 60 120 180 240 300 360 420 480 540 600 660 720 780 840
Time (days)
Fig. 2 Construction sequence of works at Case Study Area
654
Settlement Measurements 0

-5
Fig. 3 indicates the magnitudes of settlements in the
Vertical Drain Area. The deep settlement gauges that -10

Elevation (m CD)
were installed in the different sub-layers indicate -15
decreasing settlement with depth as would be expected.
-20
As expected, the Vertical Drain Area indicated much Vertical Drain Area: 3 months after surcharge
greater settlement magnitudes as compared to the -25 Vertical Drain Area: 9 months after surcharge
Vertical Drain Area: 20 months after surcharge
Control Area. This indicates that the vertical drains are Control Area: 3 months after surcharge
-30
functioning. The settlement plates (SP-95) and the deep Control Area: 9 months after surcharge
Control Area: 20 months after surcharge
settlement gauge (DS-93) that were installed at the -35
0.0 0.2 0.4 0.6 0.8 1.0 1.2 1.4 1.6 1.8 2.0 2.2 2.4
original seabed level gave similar reading for the Settlement (m)
magnitude and rate of settlement.
Fig. 4 compares the settlement plate results between Fig. 5 Comparison of field settlement isochrones
the Vertical Drain Area and Control Area. The vast
improvement of the Vertical Drain Area as compared to
the Control Area is clearly evident in the figure. Fig. 5 Pore Pressure Measurements
compares the field settlement isochrones between the
Vertical Drain Area and Control Area for various The piezometer monitoring data in the Vertical Drain
surcharge durations. As expected the magnitude and rate Area after correction of the piezometer tip settlement is
of settlement of the Vertical Drain Area is much higher shown in Fig. 6. Fig. 7 indicates the comparison of
than that of the Control Area. excess pore pressure isochrones between the Vertical
Drain Area and Control Area at various periods after
0.0 surcharge placement.
DS-110
DS-109
-0.5 160
DS-108 PP-76 (-6.92 m CD)
DS-107 140 PP-77 (-9.91 m CD)
-1.0
Settlement (m)

PP-79 (-17.8 m CD)

Excess Pore Pressure (kPa)

120 PP-80 (-22.9 mCD)

-1.5 DS-106 PP-81 (-27.8 m CD)
100 PP-82 (-32.08 m CD)
SP-95 (-3.29 mCD)
-2.0 DS-93 (-4.1 mCD) 80
DS-106 (-10.9 mCD) DS-93 PP-76
DS-107 (-14.8 m CD) 60 PP-77
-2.5 DS-108 (-20 m CD) SP-95
PP-80
DS-109 (-27.1 m CD) 40
DS-110 (-34.1 m CD) PP-79
-3.0 PP-81
20
0 60 120 180 240 300 360 420 480 540 600 660 720 780 840
Time (days) PP-82
0
0 60 120 180 240 300 360 420 480 540 600 660 720 780 840
Fig. 3 Field settlement results at Vertical Drain Area Time (days)

Fig. 6 Excess pore pressures at Vertical Drain Area

0.0
0.2
0.4 -5
0.6
-10
0.8
Settlement (m)

1.0 -15
1.2
Elevation (m CD)

1.4 -20

1.6
-25
1.8
2.0 -30
2.2 Vertical Drain Area: SP-95
-35 Vertical Drain Area: 3 months after surcharge
2.4 Control Area: SP-04 Vertical Drain Area: 9 months after surcharge
Vertical Drain Area: 20 months after surcharge
2.6 Control Area: 3 months after surcharge
-40 Control Area: 9 months after surcharge
0 60 120 180 240 300 360 420 480 540 600 660 720 780 840 Control Area: 20 months after surcharge
Submerged Additional Load 20 months after surcharge= 158.51 kPa
Time (days) -45
0 20 40 60 80 100 120 140 160 180 200
Fig. 4 Comparison of field settlement at Case Study Excess Pore Pressure (kPa)

Area
Fig. 7 Comparison of piezometer excess pore pressure
isochrones
 655
The rapid dissipation of excess pore water pressure CONCLUSION
with time is clearly evident in the Vertical Drain Area.
The slow rate of dissipation of excess pore water The ultimate settlement predicted from the settlement
pressure with time is also noted at the Control Area. It is gauges by application of the Hyperbolic and Asaoka
evident that the degree of consolidation of the Vertical prediction methods was found to be about 3 meters. The
assessment of degree of consolidation is found to be in
Drain Area is far greater than that of the Control Area.
good agreement for the Asaoka, Hyperbolic and
piezometer methods. The settlement gauges and
Degree of Consolidation piezometers indicate that the degree of consolidation of
the Vertical Drain Area had attained a degree of
The degree of consolidation was assessed from the consolidation of about 80%. The piezometers indicate
settlement plates by the Asaoka (Asaoka 1978) and that the Control Area had only attained a degree of
Hyperbolic (Sridharan & Sreepada 1981; Tan 1995) methods. consolidation of about 20%. The instrumentation results
The method of application of these methods for land in the Vertical Drain Area indicates much higher degree
reclamation projects on marine clay have been discussed of improvements as compared to the Control Area which
by Arulrajah et al. (2004b) and Bo et al. (1997). indicates that the vertical drains are performing to
improve the soil drainage system. In addition to the field
Fig. 8 compares the degree of consolidation as obtained
instrumentation case study, this paper also discusses the
from the settlement gauge and piezometer results. Table methods of land reclamation and field instrumentation.
1 compares the degree of consolidation as obtained by
the observational methods at the Vertical Drain Area. It
is seen that the methods give consistent results. The degree REFERENCES
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