IADC Presents Study on Polder Dike Rockfill Project (South Korea)

International Association of Dredging Companies IADC, in its latest edition of Terra et Aqua, has posted an article about the Geotextile Tubes as a replacement for rockfill for the Polder Dike in Saemangenum, South Korea.

The 33.9-km-long Saemangeum Sea Dike links Gunsan in the north to Buan in the south. As of now it is the world’s longest sea dike. Before the dike was constructed, Mangyeon River and Dongjin River discharged directly into the Yellow Sea.

When the dike was completed, a 400-km2 reservoir was formed and both these rivers drain into it. Future development will involve land reclamation within the formed lake for agricultural, industrial, business, residential, wetland and ecotourism purposes.

This article concerns the land reclamation works for one of the development packages: the Polder Dike that serves as a land reclamation dike during the construction period and as a flood protection dike for the longer term. The Polder Dike consists of a sandfill core with rock revetment for erosion protection on both sides of the dike. A road pavement is provided on top of the Polder Dike.

For the original design of the Polder Dike rockfill berms are used to contain the sandfill core during construction of the Polder Dike. As an alternative to the original design, geotextile tubes were used to replace the rockfill berms for the construction of the Polder Dike.

More than 26 km of geotextile tubes were used for this project. The geotextile tube alternative was more economical than the rockfill berm design and also helped save up to 7 months in construction time. The geotextile tube alternative was also more environmentally friendly, giving a smaller carbon footprint when compared with the rockfill berm design.

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Press Release, December 11, 2013