A cement plant in southern Michigan was rapidly running out of capacity in their current landfill. The new cell was required to contain the high pH cement kiln dust (CKD). The new landfill cell had to be lined with a durable, impermeable geomembrane. Due to a late season start, installation time was a critical factor in specifying an appropriate system.
30 mil PVC geomembrane, custom fabricated and
installed by EPI. The choice of geomembrane material was
logical. PVC, in prefabricated panels allowed the entire 6 acre site to be
lined in few working days. Construction managers at Blasland Bouck & Lee
in Ann Arbor contacted EPI for assistance with providing the geosynthetics for
this project. The geosynthetic portion of the project had a late
season start, so installation and welding would have to be done in less than
ideal weather conditions. EPI
has the ability to fabricate panels as large as 20,000 square feet with all of
the panel fabrication welding done in the factory under controlled conditions.
Using AutoCADD, EPI designed a panel
layout that minimized waste and scrap in this irregularly shaped cell.
The
PVC panels were then fabricated at EPI's plant to the required dimensions and
shapes per this custom panel layout. With these prefabricated panels,
field seams were reduced by 70% over the amount required for polyethylene rolls.
And, because there were fewer field seams, installation was faster and overall
labor costs were lower.
The 296,750 square feet of 30 mil PVC was deployed, field welded and tested by trained EPI installers. All field seams were welded using a dual track thermal weld. Dual track welding and air channel testing allowed 100% of field seams to be non-destructively and destructively tested. In 2 instances, EPI Technicians were able to use the air channel test to actually peel apart seams from the inside out. These areas of below specification seam strength were located, removed and repaired. The comment was made "air lance testing would have never found that weak area... only if by chance you took a destructive sample from that area would you have found those inadequate seams." At Environmental Protection, Inc. we absolutely agree with this. Air channel testing provides the ability to test 100% of the field seams for continuity AND STRENGTH. Any voids, pinholes, or flaws can be located and repaired. And, areas of low seam peel strength can be located and re-welded BEFORE any soil cover is placed on the liner. Both the Engineer and the MDEQ Inspector agreed that this testing method works, and is far superior to air lance testing.