Abstract
The extraordinary physical properties of soils of volcanic origin were significant in the construction of a 3.3 km earthlined headworks canal for the 20 MW Ruahihi hydro-electric power project. The scheme is the final stage of hydro-electric development on the Wairoa River for the Tauranga Joint Generation Committee. Soils at the site were found to have high natural water content, high plasticity, high sensitivity and low bulk density. These physical properties gave rise to problems during earthworks construction; namely, difficulties in excavation and compaction. These problems have since been attributed to the presence of the clay mineral allophane; similar difficulties have been reported by Northey and Schafer (1974). Perhaps the most perplexing property is that the soils undergo irreversible changes on drying. Hence compaction control values were found to lie dependent on the treatment of the soils before testing. This paper describes the engineering characteristics of the soils encountered at the site and the work carried out to establish parameters for compaction control. A range of laboratory tests were carried out to investigate the effects of pre-treatment of the soils encountered.
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