This project involved ground improvement below the reinforced soil wall structure at National Highway 28, Gorakhpur, UP. This highway provides the main connectivity from India to Nepal, also connecting main cities in Uttar Pradesh. The site is in a high-flood zone and has a very high water table during monsoon months. Therefore, the conventional method of soil replacement was not feasible. Also, solutions like stone columns, sand piling were time-consuming and very expensive.

The challenges consisted of the site having low plastic clay, leading to low bearing capacity. As the site was in a high flood zone, executing sand replacement was impossible. To protect the foundation of the RS wall, it necessitated the construction of the RCC wall to raise the ground level high over which PCC for the RS wall was to be placed.

Strata’s team of specialists provided a design in which a basal reinforcement combination consisting of Biaxial PET geogrid and StrataWeb® geocells was made for ground improvement and was re-filled with the available sand from the Rohini River, increasing its load-bearing capacity. Biaxial geogrids are geosynthetic materials formed into a grid of connected tensile elements. Biaxial geogrids increase the stiffness of the base layer and help in improving the overall stability of the structure. Pond Ash was used for constructing the RS wall.

The use of Strata geogrids saved up to 25% of the total cost. The solution made the structure extremely stable along with faster construction compared to conventional methods.