1. Road Construction in Soil Creep Areas

ABSTRACT: This paper presents a general view and framework of engineering construction over ground with characteristics of creeping deformation and addressing the driving forces and probable causations of such observed creeping deformation. The common problems or engineering implication arising from such creeping deformation to linear infrastructure development will be discussed from the aspects of design, construction and maintenance. Strategy and possible engineering solutions for each nature of the creeping deformation are summarised. Ten interesting case histories with creep movement will be briefly presented to illustrate the investigative findings.

AUTHOR: S. S. Liew, S. S. Gue & C. J. Wong

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2. Local Construction Practice and Geotechnical Performance of Rock Socketed Bored Pile in Sedimentary Crocker Formation in Sabah

ABSTRACT: Bored cast-in-situ concrete pile with rock socket has become a popular foundation option to support highly loaded structure. However, unlike drive-in or jack-in piles, the evaluation of pile performance on both capacity and deformation of this pile type can be very subjective when it comes to deciding the required pile length or rock socket length during construction. Dispute on the technical requirements and, more often, on contractual issues arise during construction against the ideally designed cases. This paper presents the authors’ experience in the bored pile construction practice in the local founding formation, namely Crocker Formation, along the west coast of Sabah. Review of the geotechnical performance of bored piles socketed into this sedimentary rock formation with different weathering condition were performed on the fully instrumented test pile using Global Strain Extensometer technology.

AUTHOR: S. S. Liew & C. J. Wong

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3. Design and Settlement Monitoring of Embankment on Soft Ground in Southwest Sabah

ABSTRACT: Ground treatment for road work has become popular in Sabah in the recent years due to the rapid development of highways with stringent requirement in the long-term settlement and stability. This paper presents the geotechnical parameters and the settlement monitoring results of the proposed highway which is situated at Dongongon-Papar Spur, Southwest of Sabah. The area of interest is about 4km of road which is split into two single bound dual carriageways, one involves minor widening of the existing road embankment and another one is the construction of a new road embankment in the paddy field with soft and compressible subsoil layers ranging between 10m to 17m. The proposed fill embankment is about 2.2m. Temporary surcharge with prefabricated vertical drain (PVD) was predominantly adopted to expedite the consolidation settlement. Besides that, other ground treatments such as basal reinforcement, excavate and replace, counterweight berm and staged construction were also adopted. Based on the settlement analysis during the design stage, the expected settlement ranged between 1.2m and 2.0m. Based on the monitoring results, settlement of up to 1.9m was recorded using deep settlement gauges during construction.

AUTHOR: S. C. Ng & C. J. Wong

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