The Geo-Trencher, ideally suited for deep and narrow cutoffs walls where a slurry trench is infeasible or inefficient, is essentially a large mixing chain mounted on a tracked chassis. This machine can be used to efficiently mix soils in place (soil mixing) with wet or dry reagents for creating of low permeability cutoff walls or it can be used to excavate and replace the in-situ materials with permeable material for building collection trenches or permeable reactive barriers (PRBs).
Geo-Trencher vs. Conventional Approaches
The Geo-Trencher is preferable in a range of soil types or for specific conditions, including where:
- Unstable ground conditions are present that would make slurry trenching unsafe or inefficient.
- Speed of installation is of primary importance. The Geo-Trencher is generally faster than conventional slurry trenching or auger soil mixing approaches for shallower applications.
- Nearly homogeneous vertical mixing is needed.
- Contaminated media are present as the Geo-Trencher reduces contact hazards for employees and the public.
- Tight space constraints would make larger work platforms impossible.
- Remote mixing (ex-situ) cutoff wall backfill is required because of space constraints.
