Ali Tolooiyan - Research Officer on Water Engineering School of Civil Engineering University Science Malaysia

Geosynthetic materials are generally used in civil engineering projects particularly for seepage control and embankments reinforcing. Due to lack of standards and reliable engineering manuals for many cases of using Geosynthetics, negative side effects of Geosynthetic materials sometimes could create more damages to the embankment. For Kerian Irrigation Scheme, a project to tackle high seepage problem at embankment was carried out by using Geosynthetic Clay Liner (GCL). In an event when water level in the irrigation channel dropped rapidly i.e. more than 2 meters in 4 hours, undesirable effects of rapid draw down has caused a 1000m collapse in embankment along the new installed GCL layer. From initial investigation, it was found that the collapse was most probably due to the decreased of GCL friction angle and cohesion which eventually affect the stability of irrigation channel embankment in a straight line parallel to the embankment. However, since the channel is a critical supply line for water conveyance, in-depth and comprehensive study was needed to properly identify the root course of the problem so that this problem can be completely solved. This paper highlights the issues of embankment failure, immediate repair and the proposed comprehensive actions in tackling the seepage and stability problems in channel embankments and discusses the required input for application of mathematical model in the fields of irrigation channel embankment seepage and stability.

Channel Embankment, Embankment Stability, Irrigation, Geosynthetic Clay Liner, High Seepage, Model Input