Some Matters Need Attention When Installing Geocell

Today, when I talk a Geocell installation case study with one of our big customers in Indonesia, he feedbacks some problems with me. Based on our experience in the Geocell field for 20 years, these situations are not only in Indonesia, other customers from other countries also make the same mistakes when installing Geocell.

And I’d like to share with you here one by one, which can help you to prevent the same mistakes in the near future.

Customer:

Anw, usually our application process is handled by our distributor. But, I agree about this 5 cm above the geocells. I think, most of our distributor experienced this and alredy try and analyzed the error on their installation process and usually use this method. Even not only for slope, for road also they need to make sure that all the aggregate already fill all of the cells and the aggregate already compacted inside cells. Because they use heavy equipments to fill inside cells and geocells obviously can’t withstand heavy objects without infills.

My answer:

Sir, thanks for your kind reply. Great minds think alike.

Yes, I talked with our engineer yesterday. For Geocell road, the most important thing is the compactation.

After all the Geocells are expanded and anchored, we should fill the Cells 5-10cm higher and fully compact them with the right heavy equipment.

And if the infill material is aggregate, we’d better mix different sizes of the aggregates to better compact all the Geocells.

Customer:

I think we can note to our applicators that the first step is to make sure that all of geocells panel expanded fully and already anchored.

Plus already connect between one panel and another panel.

In Indonesia, they usually use various connector joint and anchors.

Sometimes, they use proper anchor like steel bar. But sometimes, in remote area they use local material like bamboo.

My answer:

Yes, I know this, for road soil stabilization projects, bamboo or stake is also ok.

But for slope protection, the anchor quality, length and space all are very very important.

If not follow the installation specifications, it is easy to cause landslides. And I have a customer in Thailand, their project was a failure due to the anchor problem.

This is the failure photos they shared with me.

Customer:

For panel joint, sometimes they don’t use proper connector. They sometimes use cable ties or stapler.

My answer:

Because the cable tie is much cheaper, we have some customers from Vietnam also use cable ties.

Generally, for the connection we mainly recommend 2 options, the round one and the butterfly one. The prices for these 2 types of connectors are different, we usually recommend the best type to customers, to save their cost.