This paper presents the improvement of Plastic Board Drain method on deltaic marine clay at Pusan's New Port Project site in Korea. A total of 32,088,326m Plastic Board Drain (PBD) with lengths of 40~50m was constructed for improvement of soft marine clay. Clarifying the ground improvement effect, several types of field monitoring instruments and site investigation including CPT test for deep depth penetration were performed. Around 3.5~5.0m consolidation settlement occurred and it is estimated that thick soft clay was successfully improved based on monitoring and investigation results.
Pusan's new port container terminal is located in the west of Pusan city in Korea and view of the site is shown in Figure 1. Pusan's new port container terminal is under construction to develop into the hubport of Northeast Asia and to cope with the shortage of existing port facilities in Pusan. This project is in progress since 1995 and is supposed to finish in 2011. Northeast Asia, especially the Pacific Rim region, including the United States, China, Japan and Korea, is now emerging as a global economic center in terms of market and productivity. A logistics hub of Northeast Asia will be essential for a prospective leader of the new maritime era to have the superlative competitiveness. Pusan, a traditional gateway to Korea and Asia, has served as the heart of Korean and Asian economy, handling the world's largest container traffic volume.
This report introduces the newly adopted construction technology about ground improvement using Plastic Board Drain method at the Pusan new port Project site.
The Pusan new port, designed to be a next-generation hub port in 21st century, began its construction in 1995. Phased construction and operation are underway for the new port, consisting of three container terminals, North, South and West.
