Bentofix® Geosynthetic Clay Liner Caps Off Bayersville Landfill

Project Snapshot

Mackay Regional Council instigated the capping of the Bayersville Landfill in Mackay, as the landfill had come to the end of its usable life and required closure.

The Challenges

The closure of a landfill requires a highly impermeable layer to be placed over the top of the landfill to prevent rainwater from entering the waste and contributing to long term leachate problems that may enter groundwater.

Mackay Regional Council took the environmental initiative in calling for tenders to undertake such works.

Our Solution

The original specification from Council called for 0.5m of high quality, compacted clay to be placed to prevent water from entering the landfill. This was to be covered by 0.15m of topsoil for vegetation.

However, Global Synthetics supplies a more cost-effective and proven alternative to compacted clay layers.

The Bentofix® Geosynthetic Clay Liner (GCL) is a high-quality sodium bentonite powder that is sandwiched between confining layers. The encapsulated clay layer swells upon contact with moisture and provides a highly effective, proven replacement for traditional clay layers.

For this project, the contractor offered the Bentofix® product as an alternative to Council, with supporting documentation detailing the technical performance, construction methods and case studies where the product had been successfully used in the past in similar applications.

Benefits of Bentofix® GCL

Bentofix® GCL offers significant savings due to transportation and placement costs of this product over the cartage and placement of clay.

The use of Bentofix® GCL enabled the capping layer to be reduced by 0.35m, and the contractor was awarded the tender based on their well researched and alternative bid using Bentofix® GCL.

Mackay Regional Council has been able to save money which can now be earmarked for other projects for the benefit of the residents and visitors of the region.

Capping of the landfill began with a total area to be covered of more than 170,000m2. Global Synthetics provided the contractor with two specialty deployment bars for the placement of the Bentofix® GCL. This allowed them to lay an average of 5000m2 of Bentofix GCL each day, with peak lay rates of up to 9000m2 per day.