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Groundwater control for construction purposes: a case study from Kuwait

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Environmental Geology

Abstract

One of the major rehabilitation projects in Kuwait during the 1990s was improvement of the wastewater treatment plant at Jahra, a town 30 km north of Kuwait City. The project incorporates construction of a pumping station to collect the sewage via a network of sewer lines throughout the city. Groundwater occurs 4 m below the ground surface and construction specifications required lowering the groundwater table by 16 m to the foundation grade, 20 m below the ground surface. Open excavation with four stage well point system of dewatering was selected to ensure dry foundation conditions; but the system failed to lower the groundwater table down to the desired depth. Review of site investigation records and recalculation of field hydraulic conductivity resulted in design changes, augmenting the well point system with a number of deep wells and sumps to lower the water table down to the foundation grade. The paper discusses subsurface conditions and presents an analysis of the cause of failure of the well point system. The actual hydraulic conductivity proved to be several folds higher than the calculated one that was determined using Hazen’s formula. It was found that use of Hazen’s formula led to serious underestimation of field hydraulic conductivity. It is advised not to use such formulas without thorough investigation and proper interpretation of borehole data.

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Acknowledgments

The authors are grateful to the Ministry of Public Works of Kuwait for providing access and use of the data. We thankfully acknowledge prompt assistance from Parsons Corp; San Francisco, CA, USA on reference citation. We also wish to thank the two reviewers for their insightful suggestions that have enhanced the quality of this paper.

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Correspondence to Syed E. Hasan.

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Shaqour, F.M., Hasan, S.E. Groundwater control for construction purposes: a case study from Kuwait. Environ Geol 53, 1603–1612 (2008). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00254-007-0768-9

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00254-007-0768-9

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