Brief

Introduction to
G
Geotechnical
h i l Engineering
E i
i Profession
P f i
Prof K. Rajagopal
Department of Civil Engineering
IIT Madras
e-mail: gopalkr@iitm.ac.in

Apartment building in Kakinada suddenly sunk into the ground

Taj Mahal, Agra one of the most visited places in the World

Taj Mahal, sitting strong on

th banks
the
b k off river
i Yamuna
Y
iin
spite of severe erosion and
earthquakes. Inclination of
minarets has not changed
since its construction in the
year 1600s
1600 s

Brigade Holiday Inn, OMR, Chennai

O
l
d
M
a
h
a
b
a
L
I
P
ur
a
m
R
o
a
d

1 and 2
storey
t
Residential
Buildings
Secant piles to
support vertical
excavation (act
like sheet pile
walls)

Water table

approx. 12m

Cross-Sectional view of
proposed construction

Plan view of the construction site (schematic - not to scale)

View of excavated surface on day of site visit (29th

October 2011)

Close-up view of excavation notice the secant piles on left side on right side
hollow steel pipes and 13m long soil nails driven to stabilize excavation

Sand bags dumped to prevent flow of soil from

ground on right side excavation

Support of deep excavation using pre-stressed

grouted anchors at Chennai

Construction of Ghat road at

K k d
Kanakadurga
T
Temple
l Vijayawada
Vij
d

Narrow stretch
of road

Narrow stretch on the Ghat road

View of 2-tier Wall from Krishna River

Excavation for the 4-tier wall

ALIGNMENT OF TIER 1 FOR 4 TIER WALL

Top view of the completed 4-tier wall -

Additional Parking space gained at the top of the hill

Machu Pichu, Peru

Series of terraces to reach to the top

Terraces served to stabilise the hill slopes, space
for agriculture, townships, obstruct the enemy

Kansai International Airport

World s first airport fully constructed on an
Worlds
artificial island away from land

Air port is three miles (5 km) off

the coast of Japan in Osaka bay
Area
A
off artificial
tifi i l island
i l d 1,275
1 275 acres
(approximately 5.1x106 sq. m.)
almost double the size of IITM campus

Depth of water is 60 feet (20

meters)

Seven years of construction time

9.2 billon dollar budget (1 billion = 1,000
million)
illi )
World s largest man-made island and
Worlds
the longest building and bridge of its
ki d in
kind
i the
th mostt massive
i public
bli works
k
project of the 20th century.

Cross-sectional view of sea wall

Overall view of the sea

wall

CONSTRUCTION PROCESS
Three main stages of the island construction
Remediation (strengthening) of the seabed,
Placement of a seawall,
seawall
Fill to construct the island
While the fill is p
placed, airport
p buildings
g started coming
g up.
p

Barge bringing soil all the way from China !!!

Pre-consolidation Methods
Sand drains
Pre-fabricated
Pre
fabricated vertical drains
Vacuum assisted pre-consolidation

Sand Drains
surcharge fill

sand columns

PVDs for pre-consolidation

Corrugated plastic core
for drainage
L
t

Geotextile filter

Mangalore Refineries and Petroleum Limited Complex

Factory buildings on top of the slope

Entire height of slope stabilised using soil nails

Construction of an approach road to an RoB

Zerosite containment landfill pond at

Hindustan Zinc, Vizag

Completed Pond in Service

Failure of a road embankment due to deep seated rotation