Afteruse development of former landfll sites in Hong Kong

Landfll is one of the major methods in disposing of municipal solid waste(MSW) in Hong Kong. There are now 13 closed landfll sites in Hong Kong, and a restoration program has been launched since 1999 to transform the closed landfll sites back into recreational area. The MSW underneath these closed landfll sites will biodegrade slowly and gradually, releasing toxic gases and leachate. As there have only been a few afteruse development ever completed in Hong Kong, this paper describes the consideration in planning and design of two former landfll sites in Hong Kong–Ngau Chi Wan(NCW) and Jordan Valley(JV) landflls, in particular a discussion on the MSW settlement. Various models in predicting the longterm MSW settlement have been available. This paper reviews the applicability of these models to predict MSW settlement. However, as the predicted settlements can be signifcantly in error, they need sitespecifc calibration and validation. This paper therefore presents the settlement monitoring data in these former landfll sites over the last 30 years, and suggests modifying the Bjarngard and Edgers’ method for estimating this long-term settlement as well as the effect of additional surcharge due to afteruse development. Based on the regression of these data, compression indices Cce and C at different stages of the settlement in the modifed method have been calibrated and validated.

Long-term tunnel behaviour and ground movements after tunnelling in clayey soils

Long term ground movements above a tunnel may continue to increase with time after tunnelling in clayey soils as the tunnellinginduced excess pore water pressures dissipate,whilst the changing earth pressure acting on the tunnel leads to further tunnel deformation during consolidation.Furthermore the tunnel itself introduces new drainage conditions;that is,depending on the drainage condition of the tunnel lining,the effective stresses around the tunnel change with time,inducing further soil consolidation.A seepage rate from low permeability clayey soil is often very small and the groundwater seeping into the tunnel can evaporate quickly.Although a tunnel may look impermeable because the surface looks dry,it is possible that the tunnel drainage conditions are actually permeable.This paper summarises the investigation of soil-tunnel consolidation interaction,particularly focusing on ground surface movements and tunnel lining deformation in the interest of engineering concerns.Analysis results show that tunnel lining permittivity relative to the permeability of the surrounding ground plays an important role on both long-term ground movements as well as tunnel lining behaviour.The findings published in literature are reviewed step by step starting from a single tunnel,twin tunnels to complex cross passage structures.The mechanisms of tunnelling-induced soil consolidation for these structures are identified and,where applicable,possible engineering methodologies to assess the magnitude of long-term ground surface settlements and tunnel lining loads are proposed.