Date
02 Jun 1988, 10:30 am - 3:00 pm
Abstract
The construction of the Great Salt Lake Causeway involved several calculated risks. Original design assumptions on lake level and consolidation settlement were not realized, creating a unique situation where the critical time for stability of this embankment was not necessarily at the end-of-construction. Along more than half of the causeway's 12-1/2 mile length, consolidation and strength gain has apparently been inhibited by a layer of salt. Because it was anticipated that calculated Factors of Safety for current conditions would be close to the 1.0 originally used, a comparative approach to stability evaluations was adopted. In this approach, Factors of Safety calculated for known, past stable conditions were compared with those predicted for future conditions. Judgements of future Causeway stability were made by comparing Factors of Safety with time. The presence of a salt layer in the foundation of a portion of the Causeway's length renders exact solution of stability intractable to usual analytical procedures.
Department(s)
Civil, Architectural and Environmental Engineering
Meeting Name
2nd Conference of the International Conference on Case Histories in Geotechnical Engineering
Publisher
University of Missouri--Rolla
Document Version
Final Version
Rights
© 1988 University of Missouri--Rolla, All rights reserved.
Creative Commons Licensing
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 4.0 License.
Document Type
Article - Conference proceedings
File Type
text
Language
English
Recommended Citation
Lambrechts, James R. and Kinner, Edward B., "The Great Salt Lake Causeway – A Calculated Risk Revisited" (1988). International Conference on Case Histories in Geotechnical Engineering. 52.
https://scholarsmine.mst.edu/icchge/2icchge/2icchge-session3/52
The Great Salt Lake Causeway – A Calculated Risk Revisited
The construction of the Great Salt Lake Causeway involved several calculated risks. Original design assumptions on lake level and consolidation settlement were not realized, creating a unique situation where the critical time for stability of this embankment was not necessarily at the end-of-construction. Along more than half of the causeway's 12-1/2 mile length, consolidation and strength gain has apparently been inhibited by a layer of salt. Because it was anticipated that calculated Factors of Safety for current conditions would be close to the 1.0 originally used, a comparative approach to stability evaluations was adopted. In this approach, Factors of Safety calculated for known, past stable conditions were compared with those predicted for future conditions. Judgements of future Causeway stability were made by comparing Factors of Safety with time. The presence of a salt layer in the foundation of a portion of the Causeway's length renders exact solution of stability intractable to usual analytical procedures.
