Failures during construction of a landfill lining: a case analysis

Two tension failures occurred during the construction of the protection and leachate drainage layers for a geomembrane landfill liner on a slope of 24 degrees to the horizontal. The paper describes and analyses the design and shows that the failures occurred largely because the sequence of construction was altered without due consideration of the consequences. The designers also appeared unaware that there is a difference between the nominal strength of a structural element and its actual in-service strength. This misconception also played a major part in the failures.