Low Permeability Liner Construction Difficulties

During construction of low permeability liners at various sites within Victoria and South Australia a number of construction difficulties have been observed by the author. Various constraints on the projects included physical restrictions, climatic conditions and material properties.

The aim of this paper is to outline several difficulties encountered during construction of low permeability liners and provide case study examples of some practical solutions.

The emphasis will be on three commonly used liner materials – clay, geomembrane and slimes. In several cases the issues were site specific relating to physical conditions encountered. However, the majority of construction problems encountered could be traced back to problems associated with moisture level, bearing capacity, subgrade strength and material properties.