1. How was geology involved in this project (materials, foundation, etc.)?

Geology plays an important part in the project, both in the planning and
construction process. First, the geological features of the city of Kansai was
studied to determine the location of the future airport. The current airport of
Kansai was almost obsolete and expansion must be done to improve Kansais
economy. However, as the current airport is located in the middle of heavily
populated area, the airport itself was a safety hazards to the nearby
population and hence, the city planned to build a new airport farther away
from the city. However, there was no land available for a new airport as the
region is heavily populated. Due to this matter, the city decided to build the
airport on top of an artificial island near the Osaka Bay.
During planning process, the geology of Osaka Bay studied by geologist
and engineers. Studies showed that the island would rest on two levels of
ocean bottom clay. The upper layer is the Alluvial Clay and the lower layer is
the Diluvial Clay which extends up to 1000 ft. below the first layer. The island
and the airport will be built based on this geological features of the bay.
Furthermore, as Japan lies on top of active fault lines and is prone to
earthquake occurrences, the island and the airport would have to be
designed to withstand earthquake in addition to other common natural
disasters in Japan such as typhoon.
Next, to strengthened the sea bed before building the island, engineers used the sand
draining method in which a 5ft layer of sand was laid on the sea floor and vertical sand drains
were installed. Next, geology was involved is the construction of the sea wall
and the island itself. For the sea wall, coarse big rocks and tetrapods were used
for construction. In addition, approximately 180 million cubic meters of
reclamation fill material was used to construct the island and three mountains were
excavated for landfill. The island fill consisted of three different sizes of coarse rocks and gravel
with a maximum particle size of 300 mm. For the construction of the runway, 20 tons weight
was dropped throughout the runway to compact the soil and the runway was
paved with asphalt as it will absorb earth movement better than concrete.
Finally, a quarter of a million ton of dense iron ore was laid on top of the
terminal building foundation to strengthened the building foundation and so
that the building will sink as fast as the island which will prevent the building
from breaking apart.
2. What problems have been encountered? How have they been
remedied? What plans have been proposed to resolve the problems in
the near future?
There were many problems encountered by the engineers in this project and
the engineers was able to figure out a way to solve these problems and
hence, making the Kansai International Airport a reality.

The first main problem before building the airport is figuring out where
to build the airport. As the region is heavily populated, the was a shortage of
land for the project. For safety and social reasons, the planners and
engineers decided to build the airport on an artificial island near the Osaka
Bay.
The next problem is the geological features of the sea bed of the bay. The
bay consisted of two different layers of clays and the lower layer posed a
problem to the engineers due to its weak characteristics and the fact that
the engineers have never build an island on top of this type of clay before.
Before construction can start, engineers have to predict how the layers of
clay will behave under the load of the island and much the island will sink in
certain period of time. To do so, engineers and geologist sampled the clay
and analysis it to predict how much the airport might sink into the clay. Next,
to compensate of disadvantage of the geological features of the bay, the sea bed must be
strengthened and the engineers used a method known as sand draining to do so. First, the
workers laid a 5ft layer of sand on the sea floor and then vertical sand drains were installed to
fully penetrate the upper clay layer and form a drainage connection to the overlying sand blanket
and the underlying clay layer. Doing so, the weight of the airport will squeeze the water out of
the clay into the sand, draining the clay and make it stronger. However, the method cannot be
used to strengthen the lower layer and in fact, nothing can be done to strengthen the lower clay
layer.
As Japan is prone to earthquake occurrence, the island and the
terminal building must be able to withstand earthquakes. To do so, engineers
decided to use three different sizes of coarse rocks and gravel with the maximum particle size of
300 mm to build the island. Different sizes of rocks were used as this method will help the island
to resist liquefaction during earthquake. The supports of the building were also designed to
absorb movement during earthquake and hence, reducing the possibility of damage if an
earthquake occurs. In addition, high sea wall was also constructed throughout the island to help
the island battles typhoons and big waves.
As the island is continuously sinking and settling down, the runway and the terminal building
must be built to cope with the sinking. Hence, asphalt was used to pave the runway as it will
absorb earth movement better than concrete. In addition, calculations
showed that the island will sink faster than the terminal building. This will
cause the building to crack and eventually collapse due to uneven ground
surfaces it is sitting on. To overcome this problem, the foundation of the
terminal building was laid with a quarter of a million ton of dense iron ore so
that the extra weight will make the building sinks as fast as the island.
Furthermore, hydraulic jacks were installed on the columns supporting the
terminal building so that as the island sinks, the columns can be moved up
and down making sure that the ground surface of the building is even and
hence, preventing the building from cracking. Many other features such as
attaching the air conditioning system to the roof instead of the ground and

installing the doors and stairs with extra room for movements were added to
reduce the negative effect of the island sinking on the terminal building.
Next, as the island is sinking, it is getting closer and closer the sea
level and a typhoon might flooded the airport due to high waves. To
overcome this problem, a higher sea wall must be built in the near future.
Finally, as the airport only has one runway, the construction of a second
runway is needed to ease the traffic and for safety purposes. In addition, a
second runway is needed for the construction of the higher sea wall as the
first runway must be closed during construction of the wall. Hence, a new
island has to be built to house the new runway and this will require various
planning and problem solving as the second island will have to be built where
the sea is deeper and the clay is weeker,