Alternative Geotextile Tube Fill Materials for Marine Applications

Abstract

This paper focuses on using alternative materials for filling geotextile tubes for selected marine and shoreline applications. High moisture content fine grained materials are often prevalent at remote construction sites that use geotextile tubes. In some cases, containment of these sediments is the geotextile tubes purpose, making them a waste material of sorts. Sand is used in the overwhelming majority of geotextile tube applications (dewatering is a notable exception), and this paper does not aim to replace sand except for some applications where fine grained soils at the project site could be stabilized with cementitious material and used as fill. Four case studies are presented as examples of using cementitious stabilized fine grained soils in place of sand. Shear strength test data of cementitious stabilized fine grained soil is presented and compared to sand fill in terms of strength and economy. Results of the investigation were favorable to stabilized fill.