Ground Treatment at Kooragang Island

Brett Hawkins

The Newcastle Coal Infrastructure Group (NCIG), a consortium of Hunter Valley mining companies, is building Stage 1 of a third Coal Export Terminal (CET3) on Kooragang Island, Newcastle, NSW. The project (~$1bil Capital Value) encompasses the construction of coal export facilities which includes a new 4.3km railway loop (with coal unloading station) that then delivers coal via conveyors to a stockyard area (a series of 1.2km long stockpiles serviced by stacker/reclaimer machines) and ultimately to new wharf and ship loader facilities. The works also include dredging in the southern arm of the Hunter River.

The site is generally underlain by soft compressible alluvial soil strata of variable thickness. These geotechnical conditions and associated constraints have presented some significant issues to the overall design and construction of the facility, particularly in relation to ground treatment options for the difficult ground conditions encountered at the site.

The presentation will discuss the geotechnical investigations completed plus the geotechnical models developed and utilised in the design of a number of ground treatments for different areas of the site. The adopted geotechnical designs for selected ground treatment solutions will also be discussed.

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