Construction of an offshore dike using slurry filled geotextile mats

A study on the use of clay slurry filled geotextile mats to construct dikes for land reclamation at Tianjin Port, China, is presented in this paper. The dike so formed was covered by a thin layer of grouted geotextile mattress for protection. Through laboratory tests, a type of low plasticity clay was chosen to be the fill for the mats. A simple method for estimating the required tensile strength for the geotextile mat and the height of the mat was proposed. A preliminary design for the dike was made. Numerical analysis and centrifuge model tests were conducted to verify the design and assess the stability of the dike before construction. A field trial was also carried out in which a 100 m long and 4.8 m high dike was constructed on soft seabed. The dike has been stable and the settlement has been within the expected limit since the construction was completed in September 2001.