Abstract

The Jurong Series of rocks in Singapore primarily comprise weakly metamorphosed sedimentary rocks that have been folded and faulted. The Series occupy a large proportion of the western side of Singapore where many major civil engineering works underground are underway or are planned. Although many geotechnical investigations have been conducted and several projects have been completed published data on the properties of these rocks is sparse. Geotechnical investigations have been carried out on project specific basis and there has not been a collation of material or mass properties in the public domain. For example, interpretative reports have described the rocks qualitatively as water-bearing with highly conductive features. In practice claims have arisen regarding expectations of strength and conductivity and these are difficult to resolve in the absence of an adequate data base. The Series includes diverse rock materials such as conglomerates, sandstone, siltstone, claystone, limestone and tuff amongst others. These rocks have a wide range of properties. The authors have collected basic properties of strength of rock material for different types of rock and for various grades of weathering and in situ conductivity from packer tests with the intention of providing basic data illustrating the broad range of properties of these rocks to which others may add subsequently.

1.
Introduction

The Jurong Series of rocks (Jurong Rocks) are found extensively over the western side of Singapore. They primarily comprise sedimentary rocks that have been subjected to a low grade of metamorphism and subjected to weathering in situ. The rocks of the Jurong Series are complicated because they comprise several formations with diverse lithology. They are extensively and intensively folded, sheared and faulted. Because of their complexity, determination of engineering properties can be very difficult (Zhao. 2001). In particular packer tests to determine conductivity yield widely ranging values within short distances and strength tests vary widely between adjacent specimens even when taken from the same run of core.

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