Consolidation of clay slurry fill using horizontal drainage enhanced geotextile sheet

Due to a lack of granular fill materials, soft clay slurry dredged from seabed may have to be used for land reclamation. In this paper, a new product, the horizontal drain enhanced geotextile sheet (HDeGs), and a method to use HDeGs as horizontal drains for consolidation of soft marine clay using vacuum pressure is introduced. The construction procedure for the use of HDeGs and the vacuum preloading for consolidation of slurry clay for land reclamation is discussed. Model test has been conducted and the results have demonstrated the effectiveness of the proposed method. The advantages of using HDeGs over the other methods are elaborated. The potential of using this method for land reclamation projects is also discussed.