Project Description
The Sutton landfill site is situated in the Ashfield district of Nottinghamshire, UK. The facility has, since the 1970s, fulfilled landfill requirements for residents and commercial contractors between Nottingham and Mansfield.
Once the licensed capacity of the landfill was reached it was important to efficiently manage the leachate. Leachate generation rates are primarily dependent upon the quantity of precipitation that enters the landfill through infiltration. Therefore, it was essential to install an effective cap that would intercept and drain rainwater in order to reduce leachate generation.
Landfill operator Sita UK (now Suez UK) approached the consultants to design a final capping system for the site.
The Challenge
Sutton landfill required a safe and permanent geosynthetic capping system including 1m of soil cover in order to prevent ground water pollution.
The required geosynthetic capping layer needed to prevent the infiltration of water, be quick to install and meet Environment Agency requirements. The challenge was to produce a cost effective design that met environmental standards, providing an adequate barrier with excellent drainage performance, whilst avoiding the use of multiple geosynthetic layers or drainage stone.
The Solution
The designer worked with ABG to specify the all-in-one ABG Pozidrain 6SKL250D/NW8 geocomposite drainage and capping barrier with approval by the Environment Agency. The high performance geocomposite drainage and capping barrier comprises an impermeable back HDPE cuspated drainage core with an extended flat selvedge for overlapping, and geotextiles bonded on both sides.
The ABG Pozidrain geocomposite was installed on top of the 200mm of blinding material and covered with 1m of soil. The capping was completed without any stability problems and drainage performance was as expected.
ABG Pozidrain SKL Drainage Geocomposite
The ABG Service
ABG provided design assistance, including slope stability and flow capacity calculations.
