Use Of Geofabric In Ballina Bypass Construction

This paper presents the use of geofabric in the construction of a 14 m high embankment on soft ground at Cumbalum Flood Plain Bridge (CFPB) for the Ballina Bypass Alliance (BBA) project. The geofabric was used to improve the embankment stabilisation. In this paper the performance of the geofabric has been assessed using limit equilibrium and finite element methods. Limit equilibrium methods are found to provide similar factors of safety to finite element methods at the ultimate stability state. Finite element methods show that large embankment deformations are required to mobilise the ultimate capacity of the geofabric.