New Research Benchmark Test Sites in Norway

The Norwegian GeoTest Sites infrastructure project, with funding from The Research Council of Norway, is a national research facility for geotechnical research. The infrastructure comprises five test sites in different soils located in Norway and on the Svalbard territory north of Norway. The data collected at these sites will be collated in a web-structured database. The benchmark sites are to be developed as field research laboratories for the testing, calibration and verification of new soil investigation equipment and methods in geotechnical engineering. The research sites cover soft clay, quick clay, silt, medium-dense sand soil conditions and permafrost in Longyearbyen on Svalbard. Earlier Norwegian benchmark sites have been lost due to urbanization and other developments. The new research facility will be operation for at least 10 to 20 years. This paper briefly presents the five test sites, including initial geotechnical characterization data, i.e. in situ and laboratory test results. The soft clay site at Onsøy is of medium sensitivity and has an apparent overconsolidation due to aging. The plasticity of the clay is between 25 and 40% and has similarity to a number of offshore clays. The quick clay site near Trondheim consists of a thick quick clay layer of up to 30 m (remolded strength < 0.5 kPa). The site at Halden consists of intermediate silty materials. The silt is about 10 m thick and normally to slightly overconsolidated. The medium dense sand site near Trondheim in mid-Norway has a 20-m thick homogenous deposit of fine to medium coarse uniform medium dense sand with a predominance of quartz minerals and some plagioclase and micas. The permafrost site near Longyearbyen on Svalbard consists of layered clay, silt and sand with ice lenses, and salt content typical for marine sediments.