The design and performance of a submarine bund in Port Phillip, Victoria

This paper describes the methodologies used to design a submarine bund in the Dredge Material Grounds (DMG) of Port Phillip. Due to the large footprint of the bund, which was over 4.6km in length, and relatively uncontrolled method of bund construction, the design of the DMG bund presented a series of challenges, including:

1. Assessing a “fit-for–purpose” ground model to take account of buried channel features known to occur within the bund footprint.
2. Assessing reliable geotechnical parameters for predicting the behaviour of the bund and underlying soils.
3. Predicting the volume of material required to construct the bund.
4. Predicting the post-construction settlement behaviour of the bund, and contained material, to ensure that the contained material could not overtop the bund.

This paper presents details of how each of these challenges were addressed, and compares the actual and predicted performances of the bund over a three-year period.