News

The Fabricated Geomembrane Institute (FGI) at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign presented two (2) Fabricated Geomembrane Engineering Innovation Awards during its biennial membership meeting in Houston, Texas on February 12, 2019 at the 2019 Geosynthetics  Conference. The 2019 Engineering Innovation Award for Outstanding Fabricated Geomembrane Project was presented to Hull& Associates, Inc. (see Figure 1) for the Montour Ash Landfill-Contact Water Basin Project.  

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Coal Combustion Residuals (CCRs) are by products of the combustion of coal at power plants owned by utility companies and power producers. CCRs are typically stored within surface impoundments as wet slurry or into landfills as dry CCRs. One type of CCR, fly ash, can be used for beneficial use in concrete. In some cases, fly ash may be extracted from dry landfills for beneficial use. In preparation for the harvesting of fly ash from the existing closed landfill at the Montour Power Plant, a contact water basin was constructed in 2018 downstream of the landfill. The contact water basin was constructed to manage contact water that would be generated when surface water contacts exposed fly ash during harvesting operations. The initial permit application for the basin included a composite geosynthetic liner system consisting of, from bottom to top: an engineering subgrade with underdrain system, geosynthetic clay liner (GCL),60 mil textured high density polyethylene (HDPE) geomembrane, non-woven cushion geotextile, and a protective stone layer.

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Hull & Associates, Inc. (Toledo, OH) prepared the basin design to manage the runoff anticipated from a 25-year/24-hour storm event, while also providing temporary storage of any sediment-laden material within the basin. Prior to construction of the composite liner system, Owens Corning and CQA Solutions approached Hull to propose the use of a RhinoMat Reinforced Composite Geomembrane (RCG) as a moisture barrier between the underdrain and GCL to aid the construction process due to the extensive precipitation that was occurring in the area. To ensure that the RhinoMat andGCL interface would not pose an interface friction and slope stability risk and would meet permit requirements, Hull initiated laboratory shear testing of the material prior to construction. The testing indicated that the materials would be stable with the 4H:1V side slopes of the basin.  The contact water basin design is approximately 1.9 acres in area, with 4H:1V side slopes, and a depth of roughly 11 feet. Factory fabrication of the RhinoMat geomembrane resulted in four panels being created,three of which were identical size, and relatively square in shape (160 ft. x170 ft.). The fourth panel was fabricated into a 120 ft. by 155 ft. rectangle.Panels were designed for optimal placement and deployment direction for ease of installation based on the proposed basin configuration and to minimize field seaming and testing.  

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Installation of the RhinoMat geomembrane began at approximately 8:00 a.m. on the morning of July 21, 2018. All four panels were deployed and placed in the anchor trenches before noon on that day, using a crew of approximately eleven (11) people.  A 0.5-inch rainstorm began at approximately 12:00 p.m. that afternoon and prevented any welding the rest of that day. However, the deployed RhinoMat protected the engineered subgrade, and prevented damage to the previously exposed underdrain system.  On July 22, 2018, the basin was partially full from rainfall. Water had to be pumped from the basin to ensure that panel edges were dry enough to complete the three connection field seams. Once these seams were complete, they were non-destructively tested, and boots were installed around the two inlet pipes. RhinoMat installation was deemed complete on the afternoon of July 22, 2019, just a few hours prior to a historic rainfall event.

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The week of July 23, 2018 brought over 11 inches of rainfall to the Washingtonville, PA area, causing historic flooding and damage to roads, bridges, and flood control structures. Rapid installation of the fabricated RhinoMat geomembrane on July 21 and 22 provided protection for the engineered subgrade and underdrain in the basin, which would have otherwise been damaged to the point of required reconstruction, and over of $100,000 in rework. The RhinoMat withstood the rainfall, and served as a high-performance moisture barrier within the composite liner section of the basin design.  This is an example of the benefits of the high quality and rapid deployment of fabricated geomembranes and how fabricated geomembranes can help solve construction challenges, while also meeting design intent and permit requirements.  

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The Fabricated Geomembrane Institute(FGI) is pleased to welcome its newest manufacturer member, TenCate Geosynthetics (www. tencategeo.us).  TenCate is headquartered in Pendergrass, Georgia and serves the market globally with two commercial divisions – TenCate Geosynthetics and TenCate Industrial Fabrics. TenCate specializes in providing the highest quality geosynthetics products and solutions that enhance the world’s infrastructure, protect the environment, and conserve natural resources.  Their FGI liaison is Brian Baillie, Commercial Director – Environmental Infrastructure Group, who can be reached at b.baillie@tencategeo.com.  Please help us welcome TenCate to the FGI!!!!

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The Fabricated Geomembrane Institute (FGI) at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign presented two (2) Fabricated Geomembrane Engineering Innovation Awards during its biennial membership meeting in Houston, Texas on 12 February, 2019 during the 2019 Geosynthetics  Conference. The 2019 Engineering Innovation Award for Specifying Fabricated Geomembranes was presented to J.C. York of J& T Consulting, Inc. (see Figure 1) for the Fort Lupton Terminal Reservoir and the Taproot Water Storage Pond Projects.

The Fort Lupton Terminal Reservoir is a raw water storage facility that was built to serve North Denver and surrounding cities. The Northern Colorado Water Conservancy delivers source water to the city of Fort Lupton and Tri-State through a pipeline that terminates at Fort Lupton’s Water Treatment Facility. The pipeline requires general maintenance annually, which results in temporarily closing the pipeline. During pipeline maintenance or shutdown, no source water can be provided to the City or Tri-State. As a result, a water storage storage reservoir with a two (2) to six (6) week capacity had to be created and lined with a geomembrane to limit leakage. This reservoir liner system also had to be designed for a rapid drawdown (larger water discharge volumes) due to demand or operational reasons. This proved challenging because there are few geomembranes that can withstand the design rapid drawdown and provide the factors of safety required by the State of Colorado Dam Safety Rules and Regulations. The challenging water storage reservoir was designed by J&T Consulting with civil operations performed by Sema Construction.  The geosynthetics portion of the project is comprised of a 12 inch thick (0.3 m) gravel layer and the following liner system from bottom to top:  an 8 ounce nonwoven geotextile underlayment, 36 mil thick double sided textured reinforced polyethylene (RPE) geomembrane, and an 8 ounce cushion nonwoven geotextile that served as protection from the 18 inches of cover soil.

To accelerate construction, increase quality, and make construction more modular and predictable, the RPE geomembrane was pre-fabricated, which reduced field welding by approximately 80%. Figure 2 shows some of the pre-fabricated panels being deployed.  The project involved considerable creative details due to the inflow and outflow structures and requirements,as well as spillway (see Figure 3).  The nonwoven geotextiles were also pre-fabricated to accelerate construction.  In addition to the standard quality assurance(QA) procedures for a bottom liner system, a third party leak location survey was performed aftercover soil placement (see Figure 4) to minimize leakage.  This survey found nomajor defects to the liner system even after cover soil placement. This was confirmation of the success of the project by J & T Consulting, Raven Industries (manufacturer, fabricator, and installer), and Sema Construction.

The Taproot Storage Pond is a fresh water storage pond intended to service oil fields in Northeastern Colorado.  This pond also had a rapid drawdown design issue because the drilling process utilizes a large volume of water for the oil/gas well development.  The bottom liner system consists of a geomembrane placed on the existing fine-grained soils that had to be ballasted to prevent failure during rapid drawdown. Also designed by J & T Consulting, with civil operations performed by Northern Colorado Constructors, this project posed many challenges from a design and construction standpoint.  A geomembrane that could not only withstand the harsh chemical and windy conditions of the eastern Colorado plains, but also could be installed in a short installation window, was needed.  Raven Industries’ 45 mil thick RPE geomembrane (see Figure 5) was used because of its durability and longevity in harsh conditions, as well as designing of an integrated ballast system for the slopes that would ensure that the high winds and rapid drawdown would not affect liner system integrity.

The FGI Engineering Innovation Award provides recognition for engineer(s) who have creatively used fabricated geomembranes to successfully fulfill a client/owner’s needs including, technical requirements, scheduling, and budget.  

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The Fabricated Geomembrane Institute (FGI) is pleased to welcome its newest associate member, Hilts Consulting Group, Inc.  Hilts Consulting Group (HCG) is a civil engineering firm founded in 2003 and is located in Yorba Linda, California.  Engineering services range from project inception through construction including feasibility studies, peer reviews, value engineering, preliminary design reports, final designs, construction documents, construction administration support, construction management, construction observations and inspections, field investigations, owner’s representative, constructability reviews, forensic investigations, and expert witness.  HCG specializes in geomembrane floating covers, liners, and baffles for potable water, wastewater, biogas, recreational, industrial, and oil & gas facilities.  Their FGI liaison is Doug Hilts, President of HCG, who can be reached at doug.hcg@hiltsconsulting.com.  Please help us welcome HCG to the FGI!!!!

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More than twenty years ago, the founders of the PVC Geomembrane Institute (PGI) and the succeeding entity Fabricated Geomembrane Institute (FGI) set out to evaluate the long-term durability of geomembranes in actual field use. They wanted to exhume numerous samples of exposed geomembranes for testing on a periodic basis without ruining the integrity of the installed primary liner system. The Minnesota Department of Natural Resources (MN DNR) became a partner, and the study was started in October 1995. The study selected a MN DNR mine settling basin in the town of Hibbing, Minn., for the long-term study.

The main objective of this ongoing project is to investigate the 30-year durability of PVC geomembranes and PVC chemical fusion and hot wedge-welded seams. At the beginning of the study, samples of three 30-mil (0.8-mm) geomembranes from three different manufacturers were placed along the bottom of a double-lined mine settling basin at the reclamation site. The weather extremes and the harsh winters with many freeze/thaw cycles provided an excellent venue to test the durability of these geomembranes. The settling basin contains mine drainage that has been neutralized with magnesium hydroxide from mine waste rock piles. Three strips of PVC geomembrane–originally 6-feet (1.8 m) wide and 50-feet (15.2 m) long—were installed in 1995. After exhumation and sampling events two, four, five, ten and twenty years after placement of the samples, the test strips are shorter but still buried in a 6- to 12-inch (15–30-cm) thick sand cover at the bottom of the basin. Each test strip contains a single seam that runs the entire length at the center line of the test strip. Two of the strips have chemical seams, and the other has a 1.5-inch (3.8-cm) wide single wedge welded seam.

Geomembrane samples were previously collected and tested after two, four, five, ten and twenty years in the basin, and the materials still meet the original specifications. Following the retrieval of the 20-year samples, it was determined that there was sufficient space available in the basin to install additional materials. After discussions with the MN DNR, it was decided to install eight new materials with dimensions of 6-feet (1.8-m) wide and 25-feet (7.6-m) long. These samples also contained a seam at the centerline, but all seams were created using a thermal welder. Therefore, on Sept. 21, 2017, the FGI and the MN DNR installed eight additional geomembrane material samples on the bottom of the mine settling. The eight new geomembranes installed are:

• 36-mil reinforced polypropylene, provided by Cooley Group (CG)
• 30-mil single film laminated woven coated polyethylene, provided by Owens Corning Inc. (OC)
• 30-mil single scrim coated woven coated polyethylene, provided by Intertape Polymer Group (IPG)
• 40-mil unreinforced LLDPE, provided by Raven Industries (RI)
• 30-mil XTRM Ply ethylene interpolymer alloy (EIA) formulation geomembrane, provided by Engineered Polymer Technologies (EPT)
• 30-mil XR-5 ethylene interpolymer alloy (EIA) formulation geomembrane, provided by Seaman Corporation (SC)
• 30-mil PVC geomembrane, provided by Plastatech Inc. (PI)
• 30-mil smooth HDPE geomembrane, provided by GSE Environmental (GE)

The FGI will perform exhumation, sampling and testing of the newly installed materials after five, ten, fifteen, twenty and twenty-five years. In addition, large archive samples of each geomembrane were retained before installation for archival purposes. These archival samples were shipped to the University of Illinois at Urbana–Champaign for storage.

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The Fabricated Geomembrane Institute (FGI) inducted new Officers and a new Board of Directors during its biennial membership meeting in Houston, Texas on February 12, 2019 at the Geosynthetics 2019 Conference.  The FGI’s membership meeting was attended by fifty-seven (57) people.  In addition to introducing the new Officers and Directors, Timothy D. Stark, FGI Technical Director and Professor of Civil Engineering at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, reviewed the current state of the FGI, including current activities, finances, and goals of the research institution, as well as presented the FGI’s 2019 Engineering Innovation Awards.

 The newly elected FGI Officers will serve a two-year term (2019-2021) and are:

• President – Patrick Elliott (Raven Industries, Parker, Colorado)
• Vice President – Andy Durham (Owens Corning, Granville, Ohio)
• Treasurer – Jordan Wiechmann (Plastatech, Saginaw, Michigan)
• Secretary – Greg Scales (Titan Environmental Containment, Houston, Texas)

 The recently elected FGI Board of Directors also will serve a two-year term (2019-2021) and are listed below in alphabetical order: 

• Ray Peebles (Cooley Group, Pawtucket, Rhode Island)
• Bill Shehane (Seaman Corporation, Wooster, Ohio)
• Ed Silva (Engineered Polymer Technologies, Hillside, New Jersey)
• Duff Simbeck (Simbeck & Associates, Mancos, Colorado)

The FGI is dedicated to advancing the use of fabricated geomembranes through education, research, and technology transfer.  The FGI is a consortium of manufacturers, fabricators/installers, designers, regulators, and material suppliers of fabricated geomembranes.  For more information on the FGI, please visit www.fabricatedgeomembrane.com.

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The Fabricated Geomembrane Institute (FGI) is pleased to welcome its newest manufacturer member, Canadian General Tower (www.cgtower.com).  CGT is headquartered in Ontario, Canada with additional manufacturing facilities in the United States and China, an innovation design studio in Michigan and international sales offices in Germany, France, China, Japan, and Canada. CGT specializes in high quality coated fabrics and films used in a variety of automotive, industrial, aquatic,construction and geomembrane applications.  Their FGI liaison is Mike Thrasher, Construction Director, who can be reached at mike.thrasher@cgtower.com.  Please help us welcome CGT to the FGI!!!!

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The Fabricated Geomembrane Engineering Innovation Award was created to recognize engineers who have creatively used fabricated geomembranes to successfully fulfill a client/owner’s needs, including technical requirements, scheduling and budget.

‍Purpose

Today’s engineers are working to solve environmental issues on a global scale. FGI’s Fabricated Geomembrane Engineering Innovation Award competition pays tribute to exemplary engineers who utilize fabricated geomembranes to creatively solve a problem on an important project.

‍How the Program Works

An engineer, regulatory person, owner, installer or contractor can submit a project for award consideration. An award application must be filled out and submitted by January 15, 2019. A distinguished panel of three judges representing a cross section of industry, government, academia and media, will evaluate the submissions and rank them based on engineering excellence, uniqueness and innovation.

Qualifications

This program is open to all engineers and designers.

‍Deadline

The deadline for submitting anapplication is: January 15, 2019.

Apply Today

Download the award application today!!!  The FGI looks forward to recognizing an engineer/designer for their important and innovative work utilizing fabricated geomembranes.

The Fabricated Geomembrane Institute (FGI) presented a live-streamed short course at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign (UIUC) on 3 August, 2018.  The short course was organized by the FGI and was streamed on-line by the Geosynthetic Materials Association (GMA). The short course was offered as a set of six continuous webinars, with a one-hour lunch break separating the three morning sessions and the three afternoon sessions.  The all-day short course drew 210 registrants, with over 100 attendees streaming at any one time.

The excellent and timely presentations focused on the challenges and environmental concerns with containment and engineering technologies and how geosynthetics and geomembranes can be used to mitigate the concerns and risks.  Andy Durham of Owens Corning served as the emcee for the short course; introducing each speaker, as well as moderating the live question and answer section at the end of each presentation. The beginning portion of the short course focused on geomembrane life and performance.  Dr. Kerry Rowe, of Queens University focused on service life of geomembranes, while GlenToepfer, of CQA Solutions provided insight into the latest advancements in geomembrane testing and certified quality assurance (CQA) procedures.  Finally, Dr.Kerry Rowe concluded the morning sessions with an informative presentation on the effects of wrinkles on geomembrane performance.  

The second half of the presentations focused on various applications of geosynthetics in civil engineering applications.  For example, Sam Allen, of TRI Environmental reviewed the best practices for zero leak containment.  Gary Zych, of American Electric Power in Columbus, Ohio gave an informative presentation on effective disposal techniques for Coal Combustion Residuals using PVC geomembranes.  Finally, Dr. Timothy Stark, of the UIUC wrapped up the live-streamed event with a presentation detailing elevated temperatures in containment applications.  

Many attendee questions, comments, and experiences made the course a great success. The topics and speakers from the successful short course are shown below:

Service Life of  Geomembranes – Kerry Rowe (Queens University)

Testing& CQA Procedures – GlenToepfer (CQA Solutions)

‍Effectof Wrinkles on Geomembrane Performance – Kerry Rowe (Queens University)

‍BestPractices for Zero Leak Containment – Sam Allen (TRIEnvironmental)

‍Containmentfor Coal Combustion Residuals - Gary Zych (AmericanElectric Power)

‍ElevatedTemperatures in Containment Applications – Timothy Stark (UIUC)

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The FGI is dedicated to advancing the use of fabricated geomembranes through education, research, and technology transfer. The FGI is an industry sponsored consortium of manufacturers, fabricators/installers, designers, regulators, and material suppliers of fabricated geomembranes. For more information on the FGI, please visit www.fabricatedgeomembrane.com

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It has been over a year since the Fabricated Geomembrane Institute (FGI) inducted new Officers and a new Board of Directors, which occurred in March of 2017 at the ASCE Geo-Frontiers Conference in Orlando, Florida.  Officers and Board of Directors currently serving are: 

President – Patrick Elliott (Raven Industries, Parker, Colorado), Vice President – Laura Storey (Consumers Energy, Saginaw, Michigan), Treasurer – Ed Silva (Engineered Polymer Technologies, Hillside, New Jersey), Secretary – Andy Durham (Owens Corning, Granville, Ohio), Dale Kemnitz (Leak Location Services), Ray Peebles (Cooley Group), Bill Shehane (Seaman Corporation), and Duff Simbeck (Simbeck & Associates).  A few accomplishments of the current Officers and Board of Directors are highlighted below:

·          Increased participation – We have had some great meetings with new ideas and open discussion from new members and the new Board. This has already led to four new FGI members this year.

·          Successful Short Courses – The short courses offered at The Ohio State University were two of the most successful short courses offered by the FGI.  The Fall, 2017 Short Course was sold out (92), and therefore, a second course was offered in April, 2018 (78).  Success was due to a slate of excellent speakers, as well as Owens Corning offering a production facility tour following the short course.

·          New Website- The FGI website has a fresh new look, updated content, better graphics, allows tracking of usage, and is now mobile friendly. Please visit our new site and tell us what you think – www.fabricatedgeomembrane.com

·          Webinars – The FGI has completed three very successful webinars in collaboration with GMA:  Fabrication, Installation, and Testing – October 19, 2018, Slope Stability Part I – February 27, 2018, and Slope Stability Part II on May 31, 2018. 

·          Pond leakage calculator – The FGI created this excellent spreadsheet tool that calculates water loss of a Geomembrane vs. Compacted Clay Soil Liner and cost associated with water loss. The calculator can also help with pond sizing and volumes. Learn More

·           Increased Participation in FGI Summer Internship Program – In 2017, the FGI provided internships to six Civil & Environmental Engineering students at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign to four different member companies. Learn More

·           New samples to Minnesota DNR study – The FGI expanded the long term geomembrane durability study in Hibbing, Minnesota to include eight additional geomembrane samples. This is a long term commitment and should produce unique data from several membranes over the next 20 years.

·       New Geosynthetics Magazine Articles Published– The FGI published following articles over the past year:  Long-term Durability of Geomembrane Materials and Seams in April/May, 2017, Protecting Geomembranes From Animal Damage in June/July, 2017, and the FGI Expands Summer Internship Program in November, 2017.

·           Polypropylene Specification Development – The FGI developed a new specification for supported and unsupported flexible polypropylene geomembranes that represents an industry standard for high quality products.  The FGI Polypropylene Specification is available to download from the FGI website. View All FGI Specs

In addition to all of the accomplishments above, the FGI is working on the following projects:

·           New PVC Specification – The FGI is working to create an updated PVC specification that will provide the end user with a more consistent and high quality industrial grade PVC.

·           Columbus Reservoir Paper – A journal paper on the largest containment project in the world that shows factory fabricated seams are more consistent and at least 10% stronger than field seams.

·           Video library of ASTM test methods – The FGI is in the process of developing a library of high quality videos for our website and YouTube channel that explain and demonstrate all of the different ASTM test methods used for testing flexible geomembranes.

·           Short courses – The FGI has two additional short courses scheduled for 2018 that will address Geosynthetics in Civil Engineering Applications:  Friday, August 3, 2018 at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign (will also be recorded and live-streamed) and Wednesday, October 24, 2018 at Saginaw Valley State University (in collaboration with Consumers Energy and Plastatech).

·           Summer Internship program – In 2018, the FGI plans to continue to expand its internship program by developing new partnerships with other Universities (e.g. Colorado State University and The Ohio State University) to provide more geographically friendly interns to its members.

·           Clay v. Geomembrane Costs Paper – Conference paper is being written to highlight the benefits and cost savings of using geomembranes over compacted clay soil for containment applications.

·           RPP Project Case Study – The FGI is working on a case study of a premature failure of an RPP pond liner system, along with a new installation of an RPE system including mechanical attachment, venting system, ballast system to prevent uplift if ground water becomes an issue, anchor trench, underlayment, pipe details and panel fabrication.

·           Installation Details – The FGI is creating a library of installation details for engineers and clients to download from the FGI website in both JPEG and DWG formats.

The FGI is dedicated to advancing the use of fabricated geomembranes through education, research, and technology transfer.  The FGI is a consortium of manufacturers, fabricators/installers, designers, regulators, and material suppliers of fabricated geomembranes.  For more information on the FGI, please visit www.fabricatedgeomembrane.com.