doi:10.3850/GI161

ABSTRACT

Pipavav Shipyard Limited is setting up an integrated shipbuilding facility at Pipavav which is located at the south west coast of Gujarat, India. It was envisaged that the 400 ton Ship Building Hull blocks, fabricated at the Block Making facility have to be transported along approach roads and will be placed over the hard standing pavements, before placement into dry docks for ship fabrication. The sub-soil below was soft marine clay/clayey silt with undrained shear strength in the range of 20 to 40 kPa to a depth of 12 to 15 m below existing ground level. Ground Improvement using Vibro Replacement columns were proposed for the approach roads and hard standing pavement areas to increase the bearing capacity and to reduce the settlement. This paper presents some design aspects, construction methodology and quality control of Vibro Replacement columns.

Keywords: Integrated shipbuilding facility; Approach roads; Hard standing pavements; Ground improvement.

© 2010 by Geotechnical Society of Singapore (GeoSS)