Heavy Reinforcements: Stabilizing and Supporting a Stone Embankment with a Geogrid Reinforced Stone Load Transfer Platform-PPT Presentation

PPT Presentation

Pdf Summary

The presentation describes the stabilization of a stone embankment at the Encore Boston Resort near the Amelia Earhart Dam. The site contains weak subsurface materials, including marine clay, organic silt and peat, and estuarine sediments, overlying stronger glacial till. Existing structures and obstructions near the wall complicated construction.<br /><br />The original support concept used overlapping jet-grout columns to form a continuous element through the weak soils and transfer vertical and lateral loads to a stiff bearing layer. Because jet grouting would be performed “in the blind,” the design team required a test program to verify column diameter, overlap, spacing, and compressive strength before production work began.<br /><br />The embankment design also used a geogrid-reinforced stone load transfer platform. It incorporated high-strength ParaLink geogrids, including ParaLink 1350—the largest geogrid available in North America at the time—and ParaLink 900 in upper layers. Construction involved cleaning jet-grout spoils, preparing a working surface, placing geogrid in specified orientations, and adding stone fill, with monitoring during construction.<br /><br />Key lessons concerned geogrid constructability and installation. The geogrid had to be laid dry, flat, and straight; transverse layers had to be installed between longitudinal layers; and anchorage was especially important for one-sided reinforcement. The presentation also highlights challenges with placement and geogrid damage, emphasizing the need to account for field conditions and construction methods in both design and planning.

Keywords

stone embankment

jet grouting

geogrid reinforcement

load transfer platform

marine clay

peat soils

glacial till

ParaLink geogrid

construction challenges

Encore Boston Resort