Peat Soil problem at Klang area of Selangor Dharul Ehsan, Malaysia.

Peat soil exhibits very low bearing capacity and this soil is not suitable for constructing embankment,
highway, building or any other load bearing engineering structure. Peat in its natural state consists of
water and decomposing plant fragments with virtually no measurable bearing strength (Hashim and
Islam, 2008). This type of problematic soil has long term settlement value when subjected to moderate
load increase (Jarret, 1995). Ground improvement work is often required to build any type of load
bearing structure on soft peat soil.

Application

Methods that leave the peat in place and avoid bulk earthworks are now becoming increasingly more
attractive to engineers as construction budgets reduce and more cost effective solutions are sought
through waste minimization and environmental considerations (Munro, 2004). Method of
acceleration consolidation were suggesting to use for this peat soil problem at Klang area of Selangor
Dharul Ehsan.

A temporary fill is placed over the construction site in excess of the final design fill called
preloading stage. This causes settlement to occur more rapidly than would have occurred under the
final fill design height alone until it reaches the predicted in-service settlement for the intended load.
Peat is well suited to the preloading method as it has a very high permeability naturally and
compresses in a relatively short time under load when compared to other engineering soils. The peat
matrix deforms under load which decreases its permeability and compressibility with resultant
increase in its shear strength (Munro, 2004). One of the disadvantages of this method is that it can
extend the construction time and the preloading materials have to be imported in excess which may
lead to double handling after design settlement is achieved.

The construction is carried out in order to guard against shear failure of the underlying peat
during preloading due to the high surcharge fill material. In order to shorten drainage paths in soil
thereby accelerating the rate of pore water dissipation which speed up settlement process with
resultant primary consolidation and gain in strength earlier. Gain in strength of the subsoil at each
stage which will ensure the stability of the next stage loading. It also allows faster construction and
reduces the time necessary for preloading.