Landfill Drainage

Landfill Capping, Pozidrain - Sundon Landfill, Luton, UK

Client Bedfordshire County Council
Contractor

J Breheny Contractors

Consultant Robert Long Consultancy
Product

Pozidrain

Quantity

380,000m²

Benefits
  • High in-plane flow capacity
  • Excellent geomembrane protection
  • Adequate frictional performance for slope stability
  • Rapid installation
  • Replaces 110,000m³ of drainage stone

Project Description

Sundon Landfill is located in the green belt area near Luton in Bedfordshire. For over two decades this was one of the main landfill sites for the Bedfordshire area used for tipping of mixed waste, including large volumes of domestic refuse. The plan area of the landfill was in excess of 400,000m² with a maximum waste depth of 40m. The site needed to be permanently capped, restored and remediated to accommodate a country park, with public footpaths, areas of grassland, native trees and shrubs.

Bedfordshire County Council approached Robert Long Consultancy to design a final capping system and supervise the restoration of this large landfill site.

The Challenge

In 1997 Sundon Landfill ceased operating and it required capping with a permanent geosynthetic solution and 1m of soil cover. The objective was to eliminate the use of costly drainage stone and design a capping solution that would enable fast installation over this large area.

A large proportion of this landfill cap was on 1 in 4 slopes, where it was necessary to ensure slope stability during construction.

The Solution

Robert Long Consultancy and Bedfordshire County Council worked with ABG to develop a geosynthetic capping solution that would provide adequate drainage and frictional performance for slope stability. Pozidrain 7S250D/NW8 geocomposite drainage layer was specified and installed on top of the 1mm LLDPE textured membrane.

All capping phases were completed between 2001 to 2004 without any stability problems during construction. Throughout the construction and after completion of the installation, drainage performance was monitored and reported to be as expected on this large landfill cap.

ABG Pozidrain Drainage Geocomposite

The ABG Service

ABG provided technical advice and design assistance on this landfill capping project. This included shear box testing, slope stability and flow capacity calculations.

Contact ABG today to discuss your landfill project specific requirements and discover how ABG’s past experience and innovative products can help.

Additional information