BL&P Ground Improvement Programme, Spring Garden, Barbados
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Barbados Light & Power Company Limited Completion date 2004 Engineering Services Foundation investigations and assessment Equipment Suppliers Hyundai Heavy Industries Subconsultant Golder Associates Limited |
As part of their modernization programme to phase out aging turbines,
the Barbados Light & Power Company Limited (BL&P) planned to install new low speed diesel engines
at their Spring Garden main power generation facility. The site is adjacent to the coast.
Extensive geotechnical investigations indicated low bearing capacity soils incapable of
supporting the static and dynamic loads from the proposed plant. It was determined that ground improvement was needed
to increase the bearing capacity of the underlying soils.
A ground improvement design utilizing a vibroflot and stone columns was used as the means of improving the strength of the soils. A drilling rig with an auger shaft also had to be used to penetrate the infrequent hard layers of limestone in order to facilitate the placing of the stone columns. This was the first use of this method in Barbados.
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