“Facts About Initiating Hydraulic Fill Projects” describes the technical knowledge needed to design and successfully construct a land reclamation project.
Hydraulic fill is material deposited by a flowing stream of water. This fill material originates from a borrow area or dredging site and is transported to the reclamation area by dredger, barge or pipeline. It is then placed as a mixture of fill material and process water in a reclamation area.
Hydraulic fill is used for land creation for a range of purposes – from building or extending an airport platform to land for residential or recreational areas to industrial construction such as an LNG plant or nuclear power station. Other projects where hydraulic fill is used are the restoration of eroded beaches and construction of coastline defences as well as for environmental and habitat restoration or creation of wetlands.
To initiate these hydraulic fill projects demands a detailed understanding of the characteristics of the hydraulic fill that is suitable and available. As no two projects are the same, fill must be carefully examined for every project. Determining the characteristics of the available borrow material such as type, grading and silt content is crucial as these may vary considerably. In some cases the borrow material may need specific construction and/or treatment methods in order to become suitable fill material.
Part of this is considering the functional and performance requirements of the new land; the availability of suitable fill material; the soil conditions at the fill area; and the selection of dredging equipment appropriate to the related construction methods.
The complexity of hydraulic fill projects demand careful feasibility studies to analyse the risks inherent in realising a project. These risks may be technical, financial, economic or political and require careful attention.
A successful hydraulic fill project is also dependent on a contract format that takes all the above-mentioned elements into consideration and defines the risks and the responsibilities of each party.
“Facts About Initiating Hydraulic Fill Projects” answers essential questions such as:
- What is Hydraulic Fill?
- What kinds of projects use Hydraulic Fill?
- Why is knowledge about Hydraulic Fill material and Hydraulic Fill projects important?
- What kind of knowledge about Hydraulic Fill is important?
- What drives the design philosophy of a Hydraulic Fill project?
- What steps need to be taken during the first phase of a Hydraulic Fill project?
- What is Systems Engineering?
- How is land use defined and by whom?
- How important is the availability of a Hydraulic Fill source?
- What types of data should be collected for the design and construction of a Hydraulic Fill site?
- What are the legal matters regarding Hydraulic Fill projects?
- What are the environmental requirements for Hydraulic Fill projects?
- What elements should be included in the initial project planning for a Hydraulic Fill project?
- What technical analyses are necessary for the feasibility study?
- What financial analyses should be part of a feasibility study?
- What risks are present in Hydraulic Fill projects?
- What are the technical risks of a Hydraulic Fill project?
- What are the financial and economic risks?
- What are the political risks?
- How important is the type of contract to a successful Hydraulic Fill project?
