ABSTRACT
In most coastal area of Iran, there are very soft grounds. One of these regions is the southern part of Khouzestan Province, especially Emam-Khomeini Port and its suburbs, that the soil is soft silty clay. Foundation problems in this type of soils are high settlement and low bearing capacity. Due to large industrial development, a number of important structures should be constructed in the area and improvement of soil is therefore unavoidable unless deep foundations to be used.
This paper presents experiences of soil improvement using preloading and vertical drain in Emam-Khomeini Port. At first, it describes the fundamental theories used for the design of preloading with geosyntetic vertical drain. Then the method of construction, the important notes of operation and technical experiences are described. The instrumentation and obtained results will be also mentioned.
After preloading, a number of field tests were undertaken to control the effectiveness of preloading. The quality control tests, their selection and the comparison of results, will be also presented in the paper.
