Geotravels through western Wisconsin

November 16, 2009 | Ron Bygness and Andrew Aho

Ron: Andrew, that was a great trip last Friday with Mike and Scott from Geo-Synthetics Inc. to see their projects in Nelson and La Crosse in western Wisconsin. Let’s share some info.

The three-bridge project in Nelson involves the creation of a temporary bypass at each bridge. The site is an environmentally sensitive area near the Mississippi River.

A high-strength geotextile provided reinforcement and separation as the temporary roadway is built. They also placed a nonwoven beneath the riprap. And it was good to see the turbidity curtain working to keep silt out of the waterway.

Andrew: The La Crosse Airport project, about 55 miles south of Nelson, is a taxiway extension that involves the use of a combination of geosynthetic materials. The project required the dredging of a bay of Lake Onalaska. The bay was dredged down to a sandy bottom where a layer of geogrids was placed.

Ron: I thought it was interesting to see how the geogrids were floated out across the dredged bay and then rock was being placed to begin the foundation (see photo above).

Andrew: Yes, and after settling, a geotextile will be used for separation and then the aggregate placed on the foundation.

The dredged material is being dewatered using geotextile tubes. The tubes are in a pit lined with a geomembrane and a geocomposite drain.

A very nice project!

Ron Bygness is the editor of Geosynthetics magazine. Andrew Aho is the managing director of the Geosynthetic Materials Association (GMA).

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