Chapter 9 The Changi East Reclamation Project in Singapore

Abstract

The Changi East Reclamation Project in Singapore is a multi-phase project involving the formation of 2000 ha of land by placing hydraulically filled sand on to soft seabed marine clay. Various types of ground improvement techniques including prefabricated vertical drains with surcharge preloading, deep compactions and geotextile have been adopted for reclamation and soil improvement works. More than 170 million metre length of prefabricated vertical drain has been installed to accelerate the consolidation of up to 50 m-thick soft clay. Over 200 ha of reclaimed land have been compacted using three deep compaction methods: dynamic compaction, Müller resonance compaction and vibroflotation. The Project also includes the reclamation of a 180 ha slurry pond which contains ultrasoft soil up to 20 m thickness. Sand spreading and geotextile fabric that covers an area of 700×900 m has been used for the reclamation of the slurry pond. A comprehensive study to characterize the marine clay and sand fill has also been carried out by conducting various types of in situ and laboratory tests. Full-scale pilot tests on well-instrumented zones have also been conducted to verify the design and assess the effectiveness of the soil improvement methods. In this chapter, an overview of the Project and the land reclamation procedure is given. The soil improvement works carried out for this Project and some typical field-monitoring data are presented.