The presence of soft or wet ground beneath an embankment can cause settlement problems. Where the area of concern is small, the soft material can be excavated and replaced with a more competent granular material. The problems, and costs, begin when the area of soft ground is large.

Compacting good quality granular embankment material directly onto the soft ground will not provide the answer. The strong embankment material will soon become contaminated and weakened by the poor foundation material it is in contact with.

Therefore a reinforced geotextile placed on top of the poor foundation material separates it from the better quality embankment construction material. Being high strength, the geotextile should not be punctured by the compacted material above. Also, it should not strain excessively which would lead to large differential settlements and potential serviceability failures of the embankment above.

Good long-term strength with low strain are essential ingredients for a basal platform over soft ground.

Product	Benefits
Geolon® PP Geotextiles	Polypropylene woven geotextiles in a variety of strengths from 15kN/m to 800kN/m, to offer separation and reinforcement in one product. Some Geolon PPs also offer biaxial strength.
Geolon® PET Geotextiles	High performance woven polyester geotextiles in a variety of strengths from 100kN/m to 1000kN/m, all with low-strain characteristics.

 

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Basal Platforms