Soil-Cement Ground Improvement Design: Port of Vancouver USA Terminal 1 Dock Improvements

This paper presents the geotechnical design and analysis for the replacement of the Terminal 1 dock structure at the Port of Vancouver USA. The new structure will support a public marketplace and improve access to the Columbia River. The project involves the installation of a combi-wall bulkhead and upland ground improvements aimed at reducing liquefaction-induced lateral spreading and kinematic loading on the dock piles, along with regrading the over-steepened slope on the river side of the bulkhead. Site investigations revealed a complex subsurface profile, featuring liquefiable sands and a 25 ft (7.6 m) thick layer of very soft, organic silt within a paleochannel beneath the proposed dock footprint. To mitigate significant lateral deformations, a soil-cement ground improvement buttress was designed using numerical modeling calibrated with site-specific data. This paper details the site characterization, numerical modeling, and innovative ground improvement techniques developed for this challenging project, which is currently under construction in late 2024.