Annual r eport 2002 Annual r eport 2002 - Boskalis

Dick Bodegom, Chief Engineer
Research & Development
Fast settling with BeauDrain soil
improvement technique
Compared to ‘traditional’ soil improvement
techniques, the BeauDrain system produces
equally good - or even stronger - ground in
half the usual time.
For Chief Engineer Research & Development
Dick Bodegom, an invention usually starts literally
in his back garden. That was also the case with the
BeauDrain. “Customers want ground that they can
build on straightaway. You wonder how you can
provide them with that. So you first try to understand
how drainage works. Then you can decide
what you can do to modify the process. And the
best place to do that really is the garden. You have
to feel what’s going on. That’s my motto.”
BeauDrain is a soil improvement technique that
combines the two known drainage methods
(vertical and horizontal) with a vacuum technique.
A machine developed by Boskalis installs both
vertical drains and a horizontal drainage pipe in
the soil in a single pass. They are linked up to one
another and then a drainage pump removes all
the air from the system. The resulting difference
in pressure pushes the groundwater towards the
vertical drains, which then transport the water
upwards to the horizontal drainage pipe. The
drainage pump then removes the water.
In this way, the earth body reaches half the forecast
strength after just a few weeks. Because, in
addition, the forces exerted by the underpressure
that is generated are directed inwards, the risk of
the earth body ‘collapsing’ when it is raised is
reduced. This means that a heavier bank can be
positioned sooner.
All in all, BeauDrain saves an enormous amount
of time and that is a major step forward in a world
where ‘speed’ is the magic word.
38 Annual Report 2002