ABSTRACT
This study presents a real case where a combination of site investigation and monitoring techniques were used for assessing the performance of a soil site. The site was reserved for construction of an industrial facility where a large paper production plant containing a range of settlement sensitive equipment was to be constructed. Weak, saturated alluvial deposits were improved using a carefully optimized pattern of rigid columns. Implementation of site characterization efforts was augmented with a limited scale dead load test, reaching the design loads for the most settlement sensitive unit within the facility. The field-testing program included remote settlement monitoring under the test loads, until a stage where the initial compression and consolidation settlements were evaluated as complete. The test results were used for calibrating the engineering parameters for modelling the behaviour under the design load, applied over the actual raft dimensions used in the project.
