GEOMIX VA.pdf - Soletanche Bachy

<strong>GEOMIX</strong> ®<br />

Pr012<br />

Process<br />

BUILD ON US

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G E O M I X ®<br />

The Geomix ® process is used to make foundations, cut-off walls<br />

and sub-water table retaining walls without using concrete<br />

and with next to no spoil<br />

The soil is destructured during excavation. The spoil is moved towards the top of the cutting head. As it is fed back, the movement of the<br />

machine displaces the mix from the top to the bottom of the machine. A binding agent is then injected and mixed in.<br />

Geomix ® is a soil mixing process which consists of using the in-situ soil as a construction material. The soil is<br />

destructured during excavation and mixed with cement grout. The resulting mix constitutes the Geomix ® wall.<br />

AN ECONOMICAL WALL THAT IS MORE<br />

ENVIRONMENTALLY FRIENDLY<br />

This solution offers numerous advantages. It avoids<br />

cumbersome handling operations and removal of<br />

spoil as well as reducing the consumption of natural<br />

resources: little or no spoil, and little or no added<br />

concrete or external materials (only cement).<br />

The technique does not generally require the<br />

prior construction of guide walls. Like traditional<br />

diaphragm walls, the Geomix ® wall consists of<br />

juxtaposed primary and secondary panels.

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G E O M I X ®<br />

The rotating drums carry out the boring and mixing<br />

of the soil and cement.<br />

A PRACTICAL HYBRID<br />

PIECE OF EQUIPMENT:<br />

THE CSM<br />

This process is the result of combining soil mixing<br />

techniques and hydromill cutter technology, thereby<br />

merging the advantages offered by each of them: the<br />

robustness and proven track record of the hydrofraise<br />

cutter with the ingeniousness of soil mixing. For this<br />

purpose a new tool has been conceived: the Cutter Soil<br />

Mixing (CSM). It consists of hydraulic motors upon<br />

which two pairs of rotating drums are mounted. These<br />

carry out the boring and mixing of the soil and the<br />

cement. This equipment is compatible with numerous<br />

types of base units, which makes it very flexible.<br />

MULTIPLE APPLICATION<br />

POSSIBILITIES<br />

Solétanche <strong>Bachy</strong>’s accumulated expertise in the<br />

field of cement grouts and drilling fluids as well as<br />

in drilling diaphragm walls enables formulations to<br />

be proposed that are both optimised and specific to<br />

each site. If necessary, the Geomix ® wall can be reinforced<br />

using stanchions lowered into the soil/grout<br />

mix. There are many applications for this:<br />

• cut-off walls,<br />

• retaining walls,<br />

• soil improvement,<br />

• stabilisation,<br />

• soil and water table pollution control …<br />

AN AD<strong>VA</strong>NCED<br />

SUPERVISION SYSTEM<br />

On a real-time basis, the supervision system simultaneously<br />

checks the process’s 2 key parameters: the<br />

homogeneousness of the soil/binding agent mix and<br />

the quantity of the binding agent injected into the<br />

volume of soil treated. At the same time it enables<br />

navigation through the soil in order to ensure that<br />

the wall installed is vertical. The onboard computer<br />

technology enables the tool to be supervised and<br />

steered from a cabin.<br />

The soil/cement mix can achieve compression strengths of around 6MPa<br />

and permeability values of around 10 -8 m/s.

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FRANCE - Lewarde<br />

600m of Geomix ® cut-off wall<br />

FRANCE - Marseille<br />

Axe Littoral<br />

1,700m 2 of Geomix ® retaining wall<br />

UNITED STATES - Pittsburgh<br />

North Shore Collector<br />

10,000m 2 of Geomix ®<br />

retaining wall<br />

SWITZERLAND - Viège<br />

47,000m 2 of Geomix ® cut-off wall<br />

POLAND - Mielec<br />

Stary Bren embankments<br />

2,000m 2 of Geomix ® cut-off wall<br />

GEOTECHNICAL AND CIVIL ENGINEERING CONTRACTORS<br />

133, boulevard National - 92500 Rueil-Malmaison - France<br />

Tél. : +33 (0) 1 47 76 42 62<br />

www.soletanche-bachy.com<br />

Direction de la Communication • 092009 • Photos : R. Secco, Image’in