Geotechnical Resilience Engineering Guidelines for Upland Confined Disposal Facilities: A Case Study Approach

In New Jersey, upland confined disposal facilities (CDFs) are used to store fine-grained dredged material from the state channel network along the Atlantic coast. Many of these earthen CDFs were damaged during Superstorm Sandy, which presented an opportunity to study the New Jersey CDFs and develop geotechnical guidelines for design, and resilience of these CDFs as well as for increased operational sustainability. Drawing from the authors’ experience on over 20 upland CDFs in New Jersey since 2012, geotechnical design guidelines and lessons learned are presented and highlighted through a series of case studies to cover geotechnical investigations and construction monitoring and coordination. Further case studies emphasize geotechnical resilience engineering guidelines including: geotechnical dike composition, location-based considerations, climate change, and life-cycle considerations. Building on these guidelines, coastal CDFs, marsh enhancement using dredged material, and a hybrid upland/marsh CDF approach are presented as the next evolution in upland CDF design.