Fill
Reclamation involves walling off an area within the body of water and filling it with a combination of different earth materials called ‘fills’. Fills have different ratios between different kinds of soils, but most rely on a key component – Sand. Sand that is used for reclamation is aggregate sand, a coarse version of sand that is extracted from rivers, marine seabeds and quarries.
Drain
These earth materials push the water down onto the soft soil bed below, where it is drained out to the surface with a fabricated vertical drain that is placed through the fill to the water below. The fills, now dry, then become the base foundation for the reclaimed area, acting as a new landmass to support the structures that would be built on top of it.
Compaction
In order for the landmass to be safe for construction, the filling goes through a process called compaction. This process happens when fill material is densified by being pressed together to reduce the amount of air between its particles. Compacted fill material is able to carry higher weights than non-compacted soils. Compaction is also done to mitigate liquefaction, where loose soil materials absorb liquids and lose strength when stress events like earthquakes happen.
