Soil Stabilization in the Fill Project of the Olympic Rowing-Canoeing Park in Beijing

Abstract

The Olympic Rowing-Canoeing Park is one of 11 new venues constructed for the 2008 Olympic Games in Beijing. The soil materials excavated during its construction were primarily silty sand and sandy silt. Laboratory tests were carried out on these two soil materials with and without cement stabilization. A test embankment was constructed, and a 6-m high geogrid-reinforced retaining wall was built with the sandy silt material as the backfill, in which soil pressure and strain in the geogrid were measured. Sandy silt material was found to be more desirable than the silty sand for use as the backfill material in building the rowing-canoeing course and ancillary buildings. Shear strength, especially cohesion, increased after cement stabilization, and resistance against water erosion also greatly increased. Construction of the test embankment indicated that higher uniformity of the cement-treated soil layer may be achieved by a mixer than by disc harrow. For the geogrid-reinforced retaining wall, the strain in the geogrid was between 0.1 and 0.9%, much smaller than the strain corresponding to the ultimate tensile strength. This research was of great help in the design and construction of the rowing-canoeing course and ancillary buildings.