OUR SOLUTIONS

Construction Over Soft Soils

Whenever construction is carried out upon soft or unstable ground, there is the possibility of settlement: this can include geological effects caused by subsidence, sink holes as well as man-made effects, such as mining voids. On the other hand, when overburden on native ground is largely increased, there is the issue of differential settlement or collapse. Within mining works, stockpiled materials or heap leach pads impose great surcharges upon the ground.

 

Differential settlement can be controlled by the construction of a basal platform to spread the loading upon the ground. In extreme circumstances, this platform can also be supported upon piles, for example within embankments supporting infrastructure. The performance of this platform can be enhanced by the use of high strength geosynthetic geogrids, which absorb, spread, span or dissipate the vertical loads downwards into the ground or piles. One of our greatest success is Paralink®, with strengths up to 1,600 kN/m: high strengths enable the pile spacing to be increased, leading to cost-effective interventions.

 

Although the solutions seem straightforward, this is the beauty of good engineering; the design of such interventions requires experience and a deep understanding of the performance of geosynthetics. As a manufacturer, designer and supplier of these solutions, we are well positioned to understand and fulfil the technical needs of the client, optimising the solution, the design and the final product; it is the combination of products and the performance of the whole system that is of paramount importance.

PRODUCTS WE SUPPLY

Drainage Composites

Drainage Composites are made up by associating , during production, a draining core layer (it can be either a mat, a net or a moulded element) between two layers of geotextiles. The composite is capable of providing either filtering, separation and, sometimes, also other functions such as protection. Even with the multiple uses the main purpose is the drainage one, for this reason, the long term draining performances of the composite must be well known (compressive creep flowarate variations, filter efficency etc.).

Monoaxial Geogrids

Geogrids are used mostly for reinforcement purposes considering their peculiar structure is able to provide the necessary strength to reinforce the filling material and their capacity to confine the soil partciles that lodge in the openings of the grid itself. Monoaxial type are characterized by having a main tensile strength, normally in the MD direction, where the CMD performances are minimized to minimum as requested by the manufacturing geogrid technology.

PET Woven / Composite Geotextiles

Such products are manufactured on a textile equipment able to weave the PET yarns into a finished fabric. It can be the form of a typical woven textile (MacTEX W2) or of a composite as combination of a filtering-separation nonwoven geotextile with a knitted one (Directional Oriented Structure geotextile). These materials are able to combine the reinforcement and the separation/filtration functions in one composite mostly used in soil stabilization or reinforcement applications. In most cases, these products are used on soft soil as the geogrid is most suitable for soils unprotected from the damaging effects of granular material.