Company:
ACE Geosynthetics Inc.

Project Details

Fabric 1

ACEGrid® GG150-I
Producer/Manufacturer: ACE Geosynthetics Inc.
Primary Use: Main Fabric


Design Company
Sinotech Engineering Consultants, Ltd.

Installation Company
Fortune Construction Co., Ltd


Please describe the project specifications

The traffic flow increases as Taichung city develops, there is a demand to extend the existing highway across the Chelungpu Fault which ruptured and caused the 1999 Chi-Chi earthquake. The seismic performance of the structure takes priority to be considered. It is necessary that the structure meets the design requirement that maintains stability during the design specified seismic condition and could be rapidly repaired once damaged when the major earthquake is encountered. The mechanically stabilized earth wall (MSEW) is an outstanding choice from the viaduct and the traditional rigid reinforced concrete (RC) retaining structure. The MSEW with ACEGrid® geogrid is more flexible to deal with the potential large deformation and absorb the energy from an earthquake. Additionally, the required massive earth filling of MSEW can use the soil excavated from the neighboring tunnel, to save soil disposal cost and benefits for the environment.

The MSEW is about 17 m in height with 3 tiers, the wrap-around facing is given in 1V:0.2H inclined. The toe of the MSEW is nearby the river, therefore, 1.5m diameter piles were installed at the MSEW toe as the foundation of the riverbank protection. The geological formation of the site is sandstone interbedded with mudstone, covered by a thick layer of colluvium. The soil nailing and shotcrete were taken to protect the cutting slope for the space to the MSEW.

The design consideration of the geogrid was distinct and exhaustive, not only included the creep, durability and installation damage reduction, the in-situ test was also performed to confirm installation damage reduction factor according to site soil and aggregate drain layer under the design specified compaction requirement. ACEGrid® has been proved to fulfill the design requirements and meet the minimum reduction factor 3 under the specified sampling and testing by the client. Thanks to the intensive production with well QA and QC in the factory, ACEGrid® also passed series of construction quality testing reinforcement including the tensile strength, specified unit weight and pullout etc. ACEGrid® provides the best quality as usual and once again wins the trust of the client.


What is unique or complex about the project?

Because the land of the case is limited but the amount of filling is large, the geogrid reinforced structures is the best option to meet this challenge.

Seismic design through the fault zone of the reinforced retaining wall with ACEGrid®. And the in-situ installation damage test was performed to evaluate the reduction factor for ACEGrid®. Otherwise, this is the first project which the geogrid-wrapped-facing reinforced structure is applied for the Taiwan highway, even though there are many cases in Taiwan. This will bring confidence and rich experience in the application of geogrid-wrapped-facing reinforced structures to Taiwan highways.


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