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Construction of flood protection dyke using poor draining backfill materials on the banks of river Ganges, India

Uttar Pradesh Jal Nigam Ltd (UPJNL), India had proposed to construct a modern Sewerage Treatment Plant (STP) of 60 million liters per day for treating the sewerage generated from the city of Al-lahabad. The construction site is located on the banks of River Ganges and it is extremely important to protect the STP Facility from inundation during floods. UPJNL had to build a flood protection dyke around the perimeter of the STP which eventually acts as a barrier from water intrusion during high flood water raises, which are quite common in the river bank zone of Allahabad. There are number of challeng-es to deal with in the project which includes scarcity of space to form a natural embankment, availability of suitable back fill materials, proximity to the river posing threat of embankment breach during peak floods. This paper effectively explains on the challenges dealt in design & engineering, quality of back fill material available and discusses challenges encountered during construction of the dyke when the peak flood occurred and submerged the dyke. This paper elaborates on the innovative approach chosen to design the 12m high & 2400m long peripheral flood protection dyke using composite geosynthetic rein-forcement materials with wrap-around system, which has resulted in a sustainable engineered solution along with significant cost savings.