Technical Specification for Loess High Fill Sites and Foundations

The standard "Technical Specification for Loess High Fill Sites and Foundations" (T/CECS 1430-2023) of the China Association for Engineering Construction Standardization, co-edited by Dadi Juren, has been officially published. This is an important standard for the investigation, design, construction, testing, monitoring, and construction of high fill sites and foundations in loess areas, and provides a reliable basis for practitioners engaged in loess high fill foundation construction!

Loess Plateau landform

The landform of China's Loess Plateau is mainly distributed in the Northwest region, characterized primarily by river valleys, gullies, ridges, and mounds formed by water erosion. For a long time, urban and industrial development in the loess hilly and gully region has been constrained by terrain and space, mostly extending along river valleys with limited space, and has generally faced the problem of scarce construction land resources. In recent years, more and more cities and large industrial parks have explored increasing urban, airport, and industrial construction land through the method of "cutting ridges and filling gullies," resulting in a large number of loess high fill projects.

At the specification review meeting held in 2023, academicians and experts unanimously agreed that the content of this specification is scientific and reasonable, highly operable, and coordinated with existing relevant standards. It unifies the technical requirements for loess high fill sites and foundations, making the construction of loess high fill projects more scientific, systematic, and standardized. It fills the gap in China's technical standards for loess high fill engineering and generally reaches the international advanced level.

Two experts from Dadi Juren, Dr. Shui Weihou and Chief Engineer Dong Bingyin, participated in the preparation of this specification. The two experts incorporated into the specification the construction experience in design, construction, monitoring, and testing accumulated by the company's team members from multiple loess high fill projects in the Northwest loess region, including a comprehensive development project in the northern new city area of Yan'an, Shaanxi (maximum fill thickness 110 m), a comprehensive development project of unused land in low hills, gentle slopes, and gullies in Lanzhou, Gansu (maximum fill thickness 70 m), a comprehensive resource utilization project in Yan'an, Shaanxi (maximum fill thickness 70 m), an industrial park project in Changzhi, Shanxi (maximum fill thickness 30 m), the relocation project of an oil depot of Sinopec in Shanxi (maximum thickness of fill plus collapsible loess 20 m), a semiconductor silicon material industrial park project in Shanxi (fill plus collapsible loess 20 m), a chemical warehousing and logistics port project in Henan (maximum loess fill thickness 35 m), a monocrystalline module project in Yulin, Shaanxi (maximum fill thickness about 21 m), and a loess high fill project in Baiyin, Gansu (maximum fill thickness 26 m). This has also helped Dadi Juren's core technologies in high fill site formation and foundation treatment be applied in more projects.

With the rapid economic and social development of the loess hilly and gully region and the acceleration of urbanization, more and more loess high fill projects will surely emerge in the future. The construction environment of loess high fill projects is complex, the project scale is huge, and there are many common technical problems, creating an urgent need for mature technical standards as guidance. This specification incorporates the scientific research achievements and engineering experience of the participating units in the field of loess high fill engineering over many years. It is technologically advanced, mature and reliable, economically reasonable, and has broad prospects for promotion and application.