Piled embankments in soft estuary clay - Experience from design and field measurements for redevelopment of harbour areas in Northern Germany

摘要

For nearly all redevelopment or reclamation projects of harbour areas soil improvement techniques are required due to poor subsoil conditions. Piled embankments have become popular due to the advantage of high robustness, low settlements and influences on existing buildings and infrastructural measures and, last but not least, acceptable costs. Certain progress has been made in the last 10 years by contributions of University of Kassel, Germany, leading to the design procedure given by the German EBGEO, and since the last five years of DETARES, the Netherlands, giving further input to understanding and therefore optimization. Experience from project engineering and designing certain constructions as well as execution, not only on "the green field" but under difficult conditions, as well as field measurements and monitoring, form the basis for actual design procedures. After several years (or decades) of using this complex geotechnical construction with interaction of soil improvement measures (piles or columns), spanning and supporting reinforcement, arching embankment soil and influence of cyclic/dynamic loading a safe design procedure is already established. Field measurements and monitoring results are used to improve the understanding of full scale constructions and practical validation of design procedures.