Indian Geotech J
https://doi.org/10.1007/s40098-019-00391-5
ORIGINAL PAPER
Case Histories on the Application of Vacuum Preloading
and Geosynthetic-Reinforced Soil Structures in Indonesia
Tjie-Liong Gouw1,2
Received: 1 July 2019 / Accepted: 4 October 2019
 Indian Geotechnical Society 2019
Abstract Geosynthetics technology has been applied in
Indonesia as early as 1983 where a high strength geotextile
of 200 kN/m was laid to help stabilize the highway built on
swampy land toward Jakarta International Airport. Since
then, geosynthetics have been gaining popularity in solving
various geotechnical problems, e.g., slope stabilization,
construction of retaining walls, acceleration of consolida-
tion, lining of ponds, construction of breakwaters and shore
protection works, etc. Six case histories on the application
of geosynthetics technology are presented in this paper.
Three case histories on the application of prefabricated
vertical drain with vacuum preloading to accelerate con-
solidation process of very soft clay are discussed. The first
case is a vacuum preloading on lowland area, just a few km
from seashore. The second case was vacuum preloading on
high ground of about 700 m from sea level. The third case
was vacuum preloading combined with surcharging.
Another three case histories discussed the application of
geosynthetic-reinforced soils in slope stabilization where,
instead of granular material, cohesive materials were uti-
lized as backfill. The first was its application for river
embankment stabilization. The second was a back-to-back
13-m-high reinforced soil to support a railway on top of it.
The third was a 25–37 m high retaining structure devel-
oped on a problematic clay shale for a runway support.
Despite the difficulties encountered, each of the projects
was finally executed safely and successfully.
& Tjie-Liong Gouw
gtloffice@gmail.com
1
Department of Civil Engineering, Universitas Katolik
Parahyangan, Bandung, Indonesia
2
Jakarta, Indonesia
Keywords Preloading  Prefabricated vertical drain 
Vacuum preloading  Geosynthetic-reinforced soils
Introduction
Indonesia, a country with over ten thousand islands, has
various difficult ground conditions, such as soft clay, peats,
expansive soils, loose sands, highly weathered and frag-
mented rocks, and clay shales. Figure 1 shows the distri-
bution of soft ground in Indonesia. In addition to the
problematic soil conditions, the country is also located on
the ring of fire, an area with high seismicity (Fig. 2),
making Indonesia prone to earthquake-induced geotechni-
cal hazards such as liquefaction, slope failures and lateral
spreading on loose sandy ground.
To mitigate all the potential geotechnical hazards arises
from the problematic soils as well as the problem of high
seismicity, many ground improvement techniques and
geosynthetics technology have been implemented, e.g.,
dynamic and vibro-compaction [4–10], conventional
preloading in combination with prefabricated vertical drain
[11–13], and geosynthetic-reinforced soils [14–18].
In the last 3 years, in line with the government initia-
tives to provide better housing and infrastructures for
peoples: housing, power plants, highways, railways, sea-
ports, and airports are being built. Many of those facilities
had to be built over swampy lands or soft clay soil regions
requiring consolidation acceleration. Owing to its faster
construction time as compared to conventional preloading
system with PVD, vacuum preloading techniques had been
applied. Some of the railways and airports had to be built
over a hilly terrain requiring slope stabilization; in many of
these cases geosynthetic-reinforced soils had been chosen
to stabilize high man-made slopes.
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Fig. 1 Distribution of soft soils in Indonesia [1, 2]

Fig. 2 Seismicity of Indonesia [3]

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Fig. 3 Principle of vacuum
preloading [19]
This paper presents three case histories on the applica-
tion of vacuum preloading and another three case histories
on the application of geosynthetics in stabilizing high man-
made slopes.
Case Histories on Vacuum Preloading
Vacuum preloading method utilized atmospheric pressure
as surcharge load to accelerate soil consolidation. Its
principle is presented in Fig. 3. Atmospheric pressure will
pressurize the soft soils when vacuum is imposed within
the soil body.
Fig. 4 Configuration of the
vacuum network [20]
Basically, vacuum pressure within the soil body is cre-
ated by pumping through an interconnected network of
prefabricated vertical drain (PVD), horizontal filter pipes
and sand blanket, forming a complete path for spreading
the vacuum pressure and facilitating water flow. To be
effective, an airtight isolation system is required to prevent
leakage of water and air below it. The system consists of
geomembrane, and the soft clay itself. Figure 4 shows the
whole configuration of the vacuum network. When there
are sand lenses, vertical slurry wall may be required to cut
off the continuous sand lenses or else the vacuum may not
work.
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Generally, the vacuum system can induce a vacuum

pressure in the order of 80% of atmospheric pressure to the
soft soils being improved, which is around 82.7 kPa.
Compared to soil surcharge with a unit weight of 18 kN/
m3, it is equivalent to 82.7/18 = 4.6 m high of soil sur-
charge. The advantages of vacuum preloading over tradi-
tional preloading with surcharging system are shorter
construction time, lesser earthmoving equipment required,
faster consolidation time, and since the consolidating soil
layer is subjected to isotropic stresses, it eliminates slope
stability problem of traditional surcharging system.

Banten Power Plant Project

A power plant project, located at Banten province in West

Java island of Indonesia, was underlain by very soft to soft
clay layer up to around 8 m depth where an excavator
could easily sink into the original ground as shown in
Fig. 5. The undrained shear strength of the clay layer was
in the range of 20–30 kPa as presented in Fig. 6. Vacuum
preloading was adopted to improve the soft clay layer with
PVD of 7.5 m long and 1.5-m triangular spacings. Figure 7
shows the work processes it started with the preparation of
a working platform followed by the installation of pre-
fabricated vertical drains, horizontal drains, and covering
the entire improvement area with geomembrane. Around
the perimeter of the improved area, the geomembrane was
embedded to a certain depth to make the system airtight.
To protect the geomembrane against punctures, it is com-
mon to lay a non-woven geotextile underneath the
geomembrane. The vacuum pump was then started and
maintained until the targeted 90% degree of consolidation
was achieved.
Figure 8 shows the typical consolidation settlement
achieved, and Fig. 9 shows one of the pre- and post-
Fig. 5 Excavator easily sank into the soft clay layer (courtesy of PT.
Geotekindo)
Fig. 6 Undrained strength profile—Banten Project
treatment cone penetration resistance. Post-vacuum water
content was reduced from 100% to around 60%. After the
treatment, the improved ground can be excavated with ease
to lay a water supply pipeline in the power plant area as
shown in Fig. 10 (compare it with Fig. 5).
Gedebage Bandung Residential Project
A vast housing complex is being built in Gedebage, a low
land area at the outskirt of Bandung, the capital city of
West Java province, Indonesia. This area is primarily
underlain by very soft clay layer varying from 20 to 27 m
thick. The clay layer has natural water contents that fall
near or above their liquid limits, which vary within
100–200%, the liquidity indices are around 0.9 or more,
indicating a very soft clay layer. The undrained shear
strength is in the order of 15–25 kPa. To mitigate future
settlement that could induce cracks and damages to the
planned houses, ground improvement by vacuum preload-
ing was tried out with 20-m long PVD of 1.2-m triangular
spacings. Figure 11 shows typical vacuum pressure, time
settlement, and piezometer readings.
Despite the normal practice where vacuum pressure of
around 80 kPa can be achieved, at this project the maxi-
mum vacuum pressure achieved was only in the order of
74 kPa. Located in a relatively high ground, Bandung area
has an average atmospheric pressure of 93.8 kPa. With an
effective vacuum pump of 80%, the effective vacuum

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Fig. 7 a Installation of PVD and horizontal drains, b installation of airtight system, c anchoring geomembrane along the perimeter, d starting the
vacuum pump, e the vacuum gauges

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Fig. 8 Typical consolidation settlement achieved
Fig. 9 Pre- and post-vacuum CPT
pressure that can be exerted into the ground is around
80% 9 93.8 kPa = 75 kPa. Therefore, it was concluded
that the vacuum pressure of 74 kPa was acceptable. Apart
from this lower vacuum pressure than normal, the vacuum
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data showed that it took 42 days to achieve 74 kPa. Gen-
erally, a vacuum of 80% atmospheric pressure can be
achieved within 2-week time. This rather long duration to
achieve maximum vacuum pressure might be due to the
existence of thin sand lenses at around 2.3–3 m depths.
By employing Asaoka’s method on the recorded settle-
ment data, it was found that the degree of consolidation
achieved was in the order of 94% as shown in Fig. 12.
Based on this interpretation, on April 6, 2017, 65 days after
the application of vacuum or 24 days after the soil was
subjected to a stable vacuum pressure of 74 kPa, the pro-
ject director instructed the vacuum pump to be stopped.
The decision was taken without considering piezometer
data, if based on the pore water pressure data, it was found
that the degree of consolidation achieved was only in the
order of 80% (Fig. 13). Judging from the fact that re-ap-
plying vacuum may take another 40 ? days to achieve
74 kPa, to make sure 90% of consolidation was achieved, it
was decided to apply a soil surcharge of 4.6 m high. Fig-
ure 14 shows the comparison of pre- and post-vacuum
undrained shear strength derived from CPT tests. The post-
vacuum CPT test was performed on April 16, 2017; the
undrained shear strength increases by about 3–4 times of its
original values.
Trans-Sumatra Highway: Pematang Section
The Pematang Panggang, Kayu Agung section in South
Sumatra of the Trans-Sumatra highway is being built over
5–14-m soft clay layers. Vacuum preloading technique was
applied, with PVD installed at 1-m grid spacing within the
soft clay layer. Figure 15 shows one of the typical moni-
toring data of this still ongoing project. To accelerate the
construction process, after the vacuum pressure applied to
the soils reached 80 kPa or more, the backfill material
required to achieve the required road elevation was placed
on top of the vacuum area. It was observed that every time
backfill material was added, the vacuum pressure dropped
(Fig. 15). The project team was worried and wonder
whether it was normal, and the first author was consulted to
explain this phenomenon.
The drop in the vacuum pressure is normal. Application
of vacuum pressure is inducing negative pore water pres-
sure. In contrast, application of surcharge load induces
positive pore water pressure. Therefore, when a surcharge
is applied to soil that is being vacuumed, the negative pore
Indian Geotech J
Fig. 10 Post-vacuum—
trenches were excavated with
ease (courtesy of PT.
Geotekindo)
water pressure decreases. The drop in vacuum pressure can
be calculated as follows: The first backfill added was 0.6 m
high, a pressure of around 0.6 m 9 18 kN/m3 & 11 kPa;
hence, it will reduce the vacuum pressure by around
11 kPa. Looking at the vacuum pressure chart, it can be
seen that the pressure was reduced from 80 to 69 kPa. The
pore water pressure readings from different depth also
increased by about the same values. Therefore, it is a
normal phenomenon and it shall have positive effects in
accelerating the consolidation process. At the time of the
writing of this manuscript, the vacuum process is still
ongoing.
Case Histories on Geosynthetic-Reinforced Soil
Structures
Ever since geosynthetic technology was introduced in 1983
to stabilize basal slope failure of the highway embankment
toward Jakarta International Airport, geosynthetic-rein-
forced soils have been gaining popularity to replace the
conventional gravity and cantilever retaining wall. Some of
its applications are presented below.
Citra Gran Cibubur Access Road
The Citra Gran Cibubur is a large-scale luxury residential
development located to the south of Jakarta. The project
access road that runs along the Cikeas river was
experiencing progressive failures due to erosive actions of
the river and heavy rainfalls which were saturating the
reddish clay of the riverbank (Fig. 16). The project team
requires an environmentally friendly and cost-effective
retaining structure to stabilize the riverbank and henceforth
guarantee safe access to the residential area and safeguard
the housing complex on the other side of the access road.
The first stage of the project involved 200 m of pro-
tection between road station 1 ? 680 and 1 ? 480. The
total length of the access road is approximately 2 km. The
most challenging aspects of the project were: the presence
of the river flowing at the toe of the riverbank, the necessity
to build a steep retaining structure due to the lack of space
and the constraint set by the client to use residual soil as
filling structural material due to limited budget.
Typical soil stratigraphy along the riverbank is shown in
Fig. 17. The upper part of the soil is a medium–high
plasticity reddish clay soil (PI = 40–60%), followed by
medium to very dense sand. The reddish clay layer is a
residual soil derived from volcanic material, and it is
commonly found in Indonesia, especially in Java island. It
is locally known as tanah merah which literally means red
clay. Thanks to the presence of halloysite nanotubes in its
molecular structure instead of the normal plate-shaped
structure of illite and montmorillonite, this tanah merah
has fairly good mechanical properties when properly
compacted; therefore, it is often used as reinforced soil
backfill material. However, it is important to note that not
all the reddish and brown color soils can be classified as
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Fig. 11 Vacuum pressure,

settlement and piezometer
typical readings—Gedebage,
Bandung project

tanah merah; thus, the good mechanical properties of tanah
merah cannot be assigned to other widely present clays
such as alluvial clays or highly expansive clays.
Figure 18 illustrates the typical Atterberg limits for a
number of clays, where red clay (halloysite) is tanah
merah. The determination of index properties and
Atterberg limits plays a key role in the assessment of the
suitability of a clay as fill for reinforced soil structures and
in the assessment of whether the soil can be classified as
tanah merah or not.
The proposed solution was a 3.5-m-high gabion wall to
protect the riverbank against erosion with rock mattresses

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Fig. 12 Final degree of

consolidation achieved

Fig. 13 Degree of consolidation based on piezometer data

at the toe of the gravity structure for scour protection. In

addition, a 7-m-high mechanically stabilized earth wall
was added at the top of the retaining wall, using anchored
gabion units (Terramesh) and high strength woven geogrids
as main reinforcement. The top part of the structure was
finished with a natural slope with inclination 1:2. Figure 19
shows the typical cross section of the retaining structures.
Anchored gabions were filled at the site with suit-
able stones and combined the flexibility of soil reinforce-
ment with the benefit of a modular system. Polyester
woven geogrids with an ultimate tensile strength of
150 kN/m were used as primary reinforcement, enabling
the soil to perform better than it would in its unreinforced
state so that the structure can accommodate greater loads
Fig. 14 Pre- versus post-vacuum undrained shear strength
and stand at steeper angles. Geogrids were installed with a
vertical spacing of 1 m and a length of 6 m. Reno mat-
hexagonal woven steel wire mesh 6 9 8 type. They were
tresses are units manufactured from double-twisted
filled with stones at the project site to form flexible,

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Fig. 15 Typical monitoring data—Pematang Panggang, Kayu
Agung, Trans-Sumatra highway project (courtesy of PT. Geosystem
Teknindo Unggul)
permeable, monolithic structures such as riverbank pro-
tection and channel linings for erosion control projects.
They were suitable as toe scour protection structure in the
riverbeds. To prevent permeation of fine-grain soils, behind
all the gabion structures non-woven geotextiles were
placed to act as separator and filter.
The height of the gabion wall was selected in order to
contain the maximum expected water level in the river,
which was 3 m. The toe protection by means of Reno
mattresses extended in the riverbed for 2 m. The extension
of the toe scour protection was selected as 2 times the
maximum allowable scour depth across the gabion axis.
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According to test results derived from physical model
study developed at the hydraulic laboratory of Fort Collins,
Colorado State University (USA), gabion structures can
withstand currents and river flow with velocity up to 7.6 m/
s (Table 1).
Since the structural soil used in this project was a clay
fill, i.e., the compacted tanah merah, it is of utmost
importance to design and install a proper internal and
external drainage system in order to ensure water does not
enter into the structural embankment and influence the clay
mechanical properties. In fact, after placement and com-
paction, the pore pressure in the fill is negative, i.e., in a
state of suction. It is crucial that this state of suction is
maintained as suction provides additional shear strength.
For this reason, all the internal and external drainage sys-
tems should be designed to prevent water from coming into
contact with the clay fill. To serve this purpose, a draining
geo-composite was installed at the interface between the
existing soil and the clay fill in order to intercept any water
coming from the existing formation. The draining com-
posite was then connected to a system of perforated and not
perforated pipes placed inside the MSE wall body in order
to safely discharge the collected water out of the structure
facing. Drainage geo-composites were adopted instead of
traditional granular materials encapsulated in geotextiles as
drainage geo-composites are faster and easier to install and
also more cost-effective.
For the design of reinforced soil structure, the structural
tanah merah fill strength parameters used are:
c0 ¼ 5 kPa and /0 ¼ 25
All the internal and external stability checks for the
retaining structure were performed using the proprietary
limit equilibrium-based software MacSTARS W.
To facilitate the establishment of green slopes, a poly-
meric erosion control mat was also installed. This is a
three-dimensional erosion control mat consisting of a UV
stabilized polymer core. Upon heavy rains and water flows,
the reinforcing ability of the mat prevents erosion and
retains the otherwise vulnerable vegetation. Once vege-
tated, the mat reduces runoff velocities and discharge. The
construction works of the retaining wall were completed in
around 4 months, from May to September 2017. Fig-
ures 20, 21, 22, 23, 24 and 25 show some of the key
construction stages.
Ba-Soetta Railway Embankment
The roads connecting Jakarta International airport to
downtown Jakarta are often congested causing severe
delays to the massive number of airport users, which has
already reached roughly 60 million per year. The con-
struction of railway connecting the airport to the city
Indian Geotech J

Fig. 16 River embankment

slope failure

The highest embankment section is 13 m, and it is sit-

ting on a variety of complex conditions, including an
existing water impounding area and a paddy field charac-
terized by soft soil. The key constraint set by the project
owner is to maximize the railway embankment slopes
steepness in order to curtail the required land acquisition.
Indeed, building a natural slope embankment is not feasi-
ble. Other more innovative geotechnical engineering
techniques are required.
The soil investigation report revealed that basically all
the area is underlain by clay and silty clay with soft con-
sistency at the top 10 m or so followed by stiff consistency
at greater depth. The groundwater table varies between
- 2.5 m from the ground surface up to almost at the sur-
face level.
The first proposal by the project consultant is a combi-
nation of reinforced cantilever walls sitting on driven piles
foundation containing the embankment body which was
reinforced with layers of woven geotextile wrapped around
right at the back of the RC walls. This solution is found to
be costly. Finally, a fully mechanically stabilized back-to-
Fig. 17 Typical cross section of the riverbank
back earth (MSE wall) embankment coupled with a foun-
dation improvement by means of soft soil replacement and
downtown area shall certainly provides good alternative
basal reinforcement is adopted (Fig. 26). This geosyn-
transport. Therefore, along the 2017, the government built
thetic-reinforcement system results in an overall project
a new railway line from Batu Ceper at the heart of Jakarta
saving of 40%.
city to Soekarno–Hatta, the international airport of Jakarta.
The proposed MSE walls are basically geosynthetic-re-
This new line, known as Ba-Soetta Rail, is 12 km long. It
inforced soil structures with a slope inclination as steep as
crosses city drainage channels and urban roads; therefore, a
70 or more. By placing tensile reinforcing elements within
number of bridges and culverts are required to accommo-
compacted granular backfill, from one end of the wall to
date the interferences, and almost half of it has to be built
the other end and tied it to anchored gabion (Terramesh)
on soil embankment.
facings, a near-vertical soil retaining system can be built.

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Fig. 18 Plasticity chart for a

number of clays [21]

Fig. 19 Typical cross section

of the retaining structure

Table 1 Allowable water velocities for lining types

Lining type Thickness (m) Stone size range (mm) Recommended D50 (mm) Allowable velocity (m/s)

Reno mattress 0.17 75–100 85 4.2

0.23 75–125 100 5.5
Gabions 0.3 100–150 125 6.4
0.5 100–200 150 7.6

Compared to RC retaining walls, MSE walls can tolerate
larger total and differential deformation. However, the
amount of total and differential deformation that can be
tolerated by an MSE structure depends on the wall facing
material, configuration, and timing of facing construction.
An MSE wall with precast concrete panels facing cannot
tolerate as much deformation as welded or double-twisted
wire mesh gabion facing because of its potential damage to
the precast panels and unsightly face panel separation.
Therefore, for the area where 6–13-m-high embankment
has to be built, flexible welded wire gabion facings com-
bined with the geogrids reinforcement (known as Ter-
ramesh system) as shown in Fig. 26 are adopted. The
tensile element used in this project is high strength
polyester geogrids coated with LLDPE for the best long-
term performances and has an ultimate tensile strength

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Fig. 20 Installation of gabion
and Reno mattresses
Fig. 21 Installation of non-
woven geotextiles
equal to 300 kN/m (Paralink 300). The geogrids are laid
continuously from one side of the embankment to the other
side with no mechanical or frictional joints. The geogrids
vertical spacings are 1 m, and the maximum width of the
embankment body is 16 m at the base.
This type of MSE structure is also known as hybrid
MSE structure since it combines metallic and polymeric
reinforcements. Both of the components act as reinforce-
ments and as stabilizing elements. Geogrids are considered
to work as primary reinforcements since they guarantee the
overall and the internal stability of the structure, thanks to
the high tensile forces developed when they are intercepted
by a potential slip surface, whereas the wire mesh units,
which are produced with a ‘‘tail’’ of double-twisted wire
mesh, are considered a secondary reinforcement and act as
fascia providing the local stability at the facing, ensuring
that no local mechanism of direct sliding, pull-out or
rotational failure can occur. The steel wire mesh facing
units can provide the structure with a stone facing reaching
inclination to the horizontal up to almost 90. The stability
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Fig. 22 Installation of 150 kN/

m geogrids

addition to this, a double layer (both in the railway longi-

tudinal and transversal direction) of high strength geogrids
was installed directly onto the geotextile to serve as basal
reinforcement (Figs. 27, 28).
Selected backfill material for the embankment body was
sandy gravel soil, compacted every 25-cm-thick lift,
belonging to the class A-1 or A-3 of AASHTO soil clas-
sification system (AASHTO M 145 or ASTM D3282), with
a minimum required effective friction angle after com-
paction equal to u = 30.
The construction works were started in January 2017,
and by December 2017 the railway had already started trial
operation, and no problem was encountered. Figures 29, 30
and 31 show the construction process. Figures 32 and 33
show the completed construction.

Tana Toraja Airport Runway

Tana Toraja regency is located in the South Sulawesi

province of Indonesia. Every year it hosts thousands of
tourists coming to admire not only the breath-taking
Fig. 23 Completed Gabion and Terramesh
landscapes and the biodiversity of the region, but also the
places of the rituals and the ceremonies of the Toraja ethnic
and deformation of the proposed MSE walls were analyzed
group. Until now, the only way for travelers to approach
by limit equilibrium and Plaxis finite element software.
Tana Toraja was a tough and uncomfortable 8-h journey by
Train variable load of 200 kPa was adopted, and a hori-
bus or by car starting from the city of Makassar. For this
zontal seismic coefficient, kh, of 0.3 was considered. The
reason, the Indonesian government, pursuing tourism
allowable minimum factor of safety under static and seis-
development of the area, planned to build a touristic airport
mic conditions is 1.7 and 1.2, respectively.
in Tana Toraja with a multi-year project starting in 2014.
In the area previously used as paddy fields, an average
The new Tana Toraja airport runway is 2 km long and
of 3-m-thick soft clay was found. In order to achieve the
approximately 210 m wide, suitable to host ATR types of
required safety factor and to limit deformation, the 3-m-
aircraft. Since a flat surface is required for the construction
thick soft clay was replaced with a well compacted gran-
of the runway, and due to the presence of hills and spurs
ular fill. Before placement of the granular soil, a layer of
clashing with the planned runway area, massive cut and fill
non-woven geotextile was installed to separate the fine and
earthworks have to be undertaken in order to get the
cohesive existing soil from the granular placed on top. In
required runway elevation. In the valleys to be backfilled,

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Fig. 24 Installation of erosion
control mat
Fig. 25 A few weeks after
completion
technically reliable and economically feasible retaining
structures have to be built.
The first stage of the Tana Toraja runway construction
was undertaken in 2015. It involved the design and the
execution of a 100-m-long and 15-m-high retaining struc-
ture as runway support. The retaining structure had to be
erected in between two hills. Afterward, during a second
later stage, the retaining structure will be topped with an
additional 10-m-high structure in order to reach the final
runway elevation. The total height of the mentioned
structure will be 25 m. The main technical issues related to
the design and the execution of this works were: the high
seismicity of the area with PGA = 0.3 g for a return period
of 500 years, and the presence of clay shale foundation
soils which easily lose its strength when exposed to
atmosphere.
Clay shale is a fine-grained sedimentary rock formed by
clays hardened due to long-term pressure deep in the
ground. Over time geological events brought the clay shale
formation to near-surface. These clay shales, when dry and
undisturbed, are hard and show high shear strength. How-
ever, when unloaded and exposed to the atmosphere, they
easily degrade and dramatically lose their shear strength.
Gartung [22] reported unweathered clay shale can have an
effective cohesion as high as 85 kPa with internal friction
angle of 41. However, when exposed to atmosphere, it
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weathered very fast and its shear strength dropped to as low

Fig. 26 Back-to-back MSE wall and soil replacement (courtesy of
PT. Maccaferri Indonesia)
as zero cohesion and internal friction angle of only 9
(Fig. 34).
Figure 35 shows the hard rock like clay shale freshly
excavated. Figure 36 shows the clay shales disintegrated
after just a few days exposed to the atmosphere; even if
they still look like rock, it easily spalls off and disintegrates
by just applying a small force onto it. Based on the known
properties of the clay shale, the upper 3 m of the clay shale
where the retaining walls were built (after removing the top
2–3 m of soil layers), the shear strength of the clay shales
was reduced to c0 = 20 kPa and /0 = 17.
An unreinforced embankment slope is not a viable
solution, since a very gentle inclination (1:5 or gentler) and

Fig. 27 Removing the 3-m soft

clay

Fig. 28 Placing separator

geotextile and basal geogrid
reinforcement

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a massive volume of soil are necessary for the unreinforced

slope to be stable under the required seismic design con-
dition. Space limitation and land acquisition issues made
this option unsuitable. Three different types of retaining
structures were considered during the planning stages:
concrete mass gravity walls, bored piles, and hybrid rein-
forced soil slope (RSS) combining anchored gabion units
and high strength geogrids.
The evaluation criteria given by the technical committee
for the structure selection were:
• Permeability: the retaining structures shall have a very
permeable facing in order to rapidly drain the rainfall
waters and to dissipate the hydrostatic pressure devel-
oped in the cohesive backfilling soil;
• Flexibility: the retaining structures shall have a flexible
behavior in order to accommodate potential differential
settlements and to absorb dynamic shocks in case of a
Fig. 29 Compaction of granular backfill material seismic event;

Fig. 30 Building up the

embankment

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Fig. 31 Partly completed

anchored gabion facings

Fig. 32 Completed MSE wall

construction

• Construction schedule: the structure shall be con-
structed in 2-month time;
• Overall cost;
• Local manpower: the construction method shall max-
imize the employment of locally available unskilled
manpower.
Based on all the above criteria, hybrid reinforced soil
slope (RSS) combining anchored gabion units and geogrids
is selected as the best suitable solution. The main compo-
nents of the proposed hybrid RSS are illustrated in Fig. 37.
The first stage retaining structure construction height is
equal to 15 m, but it has to be designed for a final target

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Indian Geotech J
Fig. 33 Another view of
completed MSE wall
Fig. 34 Shear strength degradation of clay shales [22]
height of 25 m; the subsequent additional 10 m shall be
constructed on the next budgeting year.
The RSS typical section is illustrated in Fig. 38. The
25-m-high structure is distributed in 5-m-high stepped
berms. The first berm, starting from the foundation level, is
built using double twist anchored gabion units in order to
confer more stiffness to the structure lower part.
Meanwhile, for the upper 4 berms, Green Wrap Around
units with 60 inclination to horizontal are used. The pri-
mary reinforcements are geogrids having an ultimate ten-
sile strength equal to 300 kN/m with an average vertical
spacing equal to 1.0 m. The geogrid length ranges from a
minimum of 5 m at the top to a maximum of 25 m at the
base.
The design is first carried out using a limit equilibrium
method-based software (i.e., MacStars W 4.0), which has
been internally developed by Maccaferri. Since no infor-
mation regarding structure deformation and settlement can
be provided by this LEM software, the RSS is also checked
using the commercial FEM software PLAXIS 2D. Fig-
ure 39 shows the input parameters used for the FEM
analysis.
The evaluation of the RSS stability under a design
seismic condition is mandatory. A pseudo-static model is
used to investigate the behavior of the structure under a
seismic event causing an additional horizontal mass
acceleration equivalent to half of the PGA, i.e., equal to
kh = 0.15 g.
The deviation in terms of overall safety factor against
failure between the LEM and the FEM software is
acceptable and less than 5% as shown in Table 2. Fig-
ures 40 and 41 show the predicted deformation under static
and seismic conditions, respectively.
Based on the design, the actual construction was carried
out in December 2015 and finished in January 2016. To
avoid degradation of the clay shale, the foundation of the
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Fig. 35 Freshly excavated clay
shale is hard like rock
Fig. 36 Disintegrated clay
shale loss most of its strength
Fig. 37 Hybrid reinforced soil structure main components (courtesy
of PT. Maccaferri Indonesia)
RSS wall was constructed as quickly as possible in short
8-m strip. Despite several issues related to the project, the
first stage of the Tana Toraja airport runway construction
has been effectively completed within the 2-month time
frame allowed. Figures 42 and 43 show part of the con-
struction stages. Figures 44 and 45 show the completed
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Indian Geotech J
structure, and Fig. 46 shows the fully vegetated facing of
the reinforced soil slope 1 year after the completion of the
works.
Concluding Remarks
Six case histories on the application of geosynthetics
technology in Indonesia, particularly vacuum preloading
and geosynthetic-reinforced soil structures, have been
presented. Through these case histories, benefits of
geosynthetics in improving poor soil properties to favor-
able ones, accelerating construction works, reducing land
acquisition required have clearly been shown. In the three
case histories regarding vacuum preloading, undrained
shear strength was shown to improve by 1.5–4.0 times its
original. For effective ground improvement by vacuum
preloading, 90% degree of consolidation has to be
achieved. The degree of consolidation has to be interpreted
not only from the settlement data, but also pore water
Indian Geotech J

Fig. 38 Typical RSS cross section—Tana Toraja Airport

Fig. 39 Soil data input for FEM analysis—Tana Toraja Airport

Table 2 Safety factor of the RSS retaining structure

Condition SF based on LEM software SF based on FEM software Minimum required SF

Static 1.621 1.675 1.5

Seismic 1.097 1.120 1.1

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 Indian Geotech J

pressure data. The other three case histories cover

geosynthetic-reinforced structures for slope protection and
construction of embankment. With the use of geosynthet-
ics, steep embankment can be built safely, reducing land
acquisition. Proper drainage and construction procedure
can be designed to protect sensitive soils from degradation,
such as clay shale. Overall, geosynthetics have a large
potential to be used in the construction industry. Hopefully,
with the examples provided in this paper, readers can have
better understanding of the application and what to look out
for when applying geosynthetics.
Fig. 40 Predicted deformation under static condition

Fig. 41 Predicted movement

under seismic condition

Fig. 42 Laying the high

strength geogrid

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Indian Geotech J

Fig. 43 Compaction of backfill

material

Fig. 44 Completed hybrid RSS

wall

Fig. 45 Another view of the

completed hybrid RSS wall

123

Fig. 46 Vegetation on the
facing 1 year after completion
Acknowledgements The author would like to thank PT. Geotekindo,
PT. Geosystem Teknindo Unggul, and PT. Maccaferri Indonesia for
giving permission in using the project data to write this paper.
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