First, the answer to Vol. 27 (last week).
Thank you for all the responses!! Several of you nailed the primary focus of this photo which was the textured material being installed with both textured sides up, as indicated by the two-tone coloring. That is not smooth geomembrane or geotextile – it is in fact the panels being installed with different sides up.
Does that matter? This project was about 8-years ago, using Agru Microspike ® and afterward I spoke with personnel from Agru and other manufacturers of similar textured products and they all stated to me that the friction angle is different between the two sides of the sheet. I’ve talked with different laboratories who run interface friction testing (IFT) and some run the test however it is specified by the engineer (they confirm orientation), and others just assume that the material is installed as intended.
Recommendations:
- Engineers: Specify which side of textured material is up and which is down for interface friction testing, installation, and CQA personnel. Or, run IFT with using both orientations.
- Laboratories: Confirm orientation from engineer prior to running IFT.
- CQA Technicians: Confirm material orientation from engineer and make sure installation follows the correct orientation.
Other observations:
- Good sandbagging along leading edges and toe of slope.
- CCL surface will need reworked after the rain, which is a work in progress in the photo. Rock pickers are working in the area, and dozer on the floor. Will need to dry out a bit in the flowline.
- The anchor trench looks pretty good where it was completed and shows a decent attempt at rounding the top inside corner to reduce stress on the material.
In these blog posts, Do You See What Glen Sees, I will present a photograph or short video related to earthwork or geosynthetics construction and have you identify the significance of what you’re seeing.
It could be things being done correctly or incorrectly. Primarily, these will be things that impact quality.
In addition to my blog, I’ll post this content on X and LinkedIn. You can post your response on one of those two.
I’ll give you my thoughts on each photo or video when I post the next installment.
Do you see what I see? Or did you find something I missed? I’m excited to find out!
