Design and construction of sealing systems with geosynthetic clay liners (GCL)

The meanwhile wide applications of GCL's for groundwater protection in traffic areas, as landfill liners or in hydraulic engineering, showed that on the one hand they are economic and easy to handle, but on the other hand high demands on design and construction have to be satisfied. First, the technical demands and the required qualification tests for the various applications are presented. Particularly, specifications for laying, testified in special drawings, are important for construction control and to prove laying performance. The importance of test grounds is shown by an example. Finally, quality control during construction is a further point of main effort. With respect of this, instructions for the storage of GCL's, the quality of the surface of support, proving the laying performance, placing the surcharge and the creation of joinings are given. Furthermore the kind and the expense of required control tests is proposed.