Keller improves ground for freight facilities in Abu Dhabi.
The project
Extends the stage 1 railway network to the border with Saudi Arabia as well as to Jebel Ali Port. From Jebel Ali Junction, the network extends north through Dubai and the Northern Emirates to Fujairah Port.
The challenge
Challenging site conditions, with heterogenous soil consisting of high contents of carbonate, shells and gypsum.
In order to achieve design requirements, in-situ soils had to be improved to achieve target deformation modulus of 30 MPa all over the improvement depth of in-situ soils.
The solution
Proposed and optimized ground improvement solution to improve the entire 2F2 package which consists of 273,077 m2.
The project specifications required the embankment for rail to be improved to 50kPa bearing capacity which was verified up for factor of safety greater than 3. The liquefaction potential risk was also mitigated, verified by post compaction CPT testing that indicated FOS >1.2 which was the specified limit. The settlement criteria considered in design under operational load of 50 kPa as: (a)15mm in 4 weeks duration, (b) 25mm in six months duration and (c) 30mm in a 12 month period.