Settlement of reclaimed land for the new Hong Kong International Airport

Construction of the 938 ha reclamation for Hong Kong's new airport at Chek Lap Kok was essentially complete in July 1995. The construction of facilities on the reclamation commenced, prior to completion of the reclamation, in November 1994 and will be complete early in 1998 in time for the airport opening. Settlement of the reclamation has been ongoing during construction of these facilities and Will continue, at a reduced rate, during the operational life of the airport, This paper briefly describes the ground conditions at the site in so far as they affect settlement. Settlement predictions based on purely analytical methods using parameters derived from laboratory and in situ testing are discussed. A more reliable 'observational' prediction method which makes full use of the monitoring data is described and estimates of the residual settlement of the reclamation are given, The paper then describes the factors which result in significant variability of the settlement profile over relatively short distances and examples of this variability are given. Finally, the implications of the settlement on the design of the airport are briefly discussed.