Access roads in Slushy soils using Mirafi HPa
Project Overview:
A leading Solar Power generating company proposed to construct a 45MW Solar Power Plant in Telangana. Project site constituted of vegetation crop i.e., Paddy and large water bodies with underlying soil comprising of high plasticity clay (CH/OH) up to a depth of 5m and C.B.R of 2%.
Problem:
The site of the solar plant has foundation soils having the presence of High plastic/Organic clayey soils. During Monsoon, the site becomes slushy and highly compressible and thus the access to the site is restricted for movement of vehicles/equipment and stopped the construction work. The conventional way of dealing with slushy soils by dumping granular soil rather proves to be naïve as it involves higher thick fills yet can not control the rut depth. Un-controlled ruts in access roads results in frequent maintenance costs and lower productivity at the plant.
Solution:
In order to improve the performance and create a stable platform, TenCate Mirafi® HP 380a 100% Woven Polypropylene multi-functional geotextile was proposed to lay on the existing soft soil. This high modulus (high stiffness) geotextile gives better confinement effect and thus prevents rut formation. Mirafi HPa is designed to facilitate high permeability function to dissipates pore water pressure from saturated sub-grade soils during vehicular movement thus preventing possible shear drops. Additionally using Mirafi® HP380a resulted in an optimized section achieving tremendous cost savings in fill material.
Conclusion:
Adoption of Mirafi HP380a geotextile proved to be an optimal solution providing improved frequency of vehicle passes and stable platform besides a saving of 600mm of fill materials. Formation of ruts were controlled after installation of Mirafi® HPa in the problematic stretches which opened access to the remaining work site to allow completion of the work.
Current Issue
12-2025
