Two sites, located in the Twin Cities area and the Minnesota River Valley, were preconsolidated with surcharge fills. Vertical prefabricated strip drains were used to accelerate the consolidation process at each site. The sites were ready for construction within three months of placing the surcharge fill. Calculations indicated that conventional preloading would have taken between two and ten years to prepare the sites for construction. This paper describes the site exploration techniques, laboratory testing methods, analysis, design and construction of both sites. Observations of settlement were made at each site using settlement gauges. The results of these observations are presented along with an evaluation of the data related to the horizontal coefficient of consolidation, C_h.
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