Mr. Manish Barot & Mr. Deeraj Reddy, TechFab India Industries Ltd.
Project
Brief:
Mundra Port, situated on
the northern coast of the Gulf of Kutch in the Kutch district of Gujarat,
India, holds the distinction of being the country's largest privately operated
port. Initially under the management of Mundra Port and Special Economic Zone
Limited (MPSEZ), a subsidiary of the Adani Group, it subsequently underwent
expansion and now falls under the purview of Adani Ports & SEZ Limited
(APSEZ), overseeing the operations of multiple ports. During the fiscal year
2020-21, Mundra Port efficiently managed the handling of a significant cargo
volume totalling 144.4 million tonnes.
Problem:
The soil present near
Mundra port is marine clay that comes soft soil category. This type of soil is
usually associated with high differential settlements and instability, leading
to overall failure of the pavement structure within its service life.
Considerable failure could occur even with light loads and it shows flat or
featureless surface. This kind of soil is considered as problematic due to the
existence of high moisture content and usually exists as slurry with noticeable
percentage of expandable clay minerals.
Solution:
To construct a flexible
pavement over soft soil, it is necessary to use a higher thickness of pavement
to support heavy loads. To address this issue, the authority has decided to use
modern technology to stabilize the pavement. In this project, a biaxial geogrid
made of polypropylene material called Techgrid PP Biaxial 30/30 Geogrid is used
between the WMM and GSB layers to reinforce the pavement. The Geogrid will
interlock the aggregate particles and increase the modulus of the respective
layer. Further, this increase in the modulus of aggregate layers will lead to
improvement in service life of pavement and better distribution of loads on to
the subgrade.