Rapid Improvement Technique of Shallow Base in Super-Soft Foundation

Dredged soil once was considered as the waste and abandoned, which had resulted in serious environment pollution and high costs. Since the viewpoint of "Utilize Dredged Soil Valuably" was proposed in 1980s, the dredged soil has been used as the hydraulic fills in land reclamation, which can meet the requirements of the booming land expansion. However, most of the fresh hydraulic soil is the floating or fluid mud, and has high water content but little bearing capacity, so it is difficult for the traditional treatment methods to improve the super-soft foundation. Based on the drainage and consolidation theory, the rapid improvement technique without sand cushion for the shallow base was developed and has been applied successfully in engineering practices. The applications showed that the rapid improvement technique improved the bearing capacity of super-soft foundation substantially, and compared with the traditional vacuum preloading method, this new technique is more environment-friendly and cost-saving.