SYNOPSIS

Quaternary deposits composed of soft clayey soil are commonly found along the coastal areas at Peninsular Malaysia.  The thickness of this soft deposit may vary from few meters to more than 30 meters. Due to its very low soil strength and highly compressible characteristics, geotechnical works such as foundation construction, piling, earthworks etc, carried out on this type of soft deposit face many problems not only during construction stage but also after the completion of works.  Failures are not uncommon especially when the works were not carried out properly or lack of proper control.  The failures may happen during construction or after the works were completed. In general, causes of failure could be inadequate information or design flaws during planning and design stages, poor workmanship or poor implementation plan and skill during construction stage.  To ensure the geotechnical works can be carried out successfully during and after the construction in coastal soft ground, sufficient subsoil information, analysis and design, proper planning of the construction sequences as well as work supervision are the key elements.


PROFILE OF SPEAKER

Ir. Chen is currently a Technical Director of SSP Geotechnics Sdn Bhd. He obtained his Bachelor of Science from the Department of Civil Engineering of National Taiwan University, Taiwan and Master of Science in Geotechnical Engineering from University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, USA. In the past twenty over years, he had been involved in many local and oversea projects including hill site development, soft ground treatment, land reclamation, deep basement excavation and foundation design, failure investigation, remedial design and others. He is a registered PE with BEM, Council Member of ACEM and Fellow of IEM.