Embankment base strengthening and construction of working platforms on soft soil

Geosynthetics have been used for decades in infrastructure construction, especially in traffic construction and geotechnics. Despite this, there is still a relatively low uptake of methods for designing solutions using these materials. While the applications of geogrids (or more broadly: geosynthetics) in reinforced soil structures (retaining walls, steep slopes) and the associated design methods are well described in the literature and standards, there is much more modest knowledge available on applications related to the reinforcement of the subsoil directly under road and railway pavement structures, the construction of working platforms on soils with very low bearing capacity, or increasing the fatigue life of the pavement itself. This situation is due, among other things, to the fact that different geosynthetics, including different geogrids, affect the bearing capacity of the subsoil and the durability of the structure in different and often very different ways. Hence – unlike, for example, in the case of retaining walls – it is difficult to develop a one-size-fits-all design method covering this range of applications. It is necessary to rely on the experience of manufacturers of particular varieties of geogrids or geo-grids and to use design methods developed by them based on this experience. This article presents the technology of geocellular mattresses used primarily in the base of embankments on weak and deformable grounds, as well as for the construction of temporary working platforms. The performance of structures in complex and complicated geotechnical conditions is analysed on the example of completed projects. The results of back analysis of structures subjected to real-scale tests are presented, which can be used for preliminary analysis of solutions in numerical modelling programmes