Mugga Lane Resource Management Centre Landfill Cells 3&4

Project Background

The Mugga Lane Resource Management Centre is located on Mugga Lane, Symonston, ACT.

The Mugga Lane site reached capacity back in 2014, which forced the government to redirect half of ACT's waste to West Belconnen Resource Management Centre while two new landfill cells are being completed. However, in the past financial year, more than 250,000 tonnes of waste have been shipped to landfills at Mugga Lane and West Belconnen.

That figure is almost half of the amount of waste sent to landfill in 2016-17 with more than 511,000 tonnes sent.

PROBLEM

Mugga Lane will soon become the only landfill site in the ACT with West Belconnen shutting down operations in 2021. An upgrade to Mugga Lane was announced in the 2017-18 budget which saw $25 million spent to upgrade the landfill's capacity until at least 2030.

SOLUTION

Part of the extension of the landfill is the construction of Cells 3 and 4.

A layer of TRANSNET® TN350 composite drainage geonet was placed on all batter side walls as part of the landfill leachate collection system.

A geonet is a geosynthetic consisting of integrally connected parallel sets of ribs overlying similar sets at various angles. Made from HDPE, the ribs are arranged to provide high tensile strength and resist compression under load. The resulting grid functions as an in-plane drainage system for liquids and gases.

Geonets are rapidly becoming one of the most commonly used drainage materials in the leachate collection and removal systems of landfills. This is because they are a reliable, cost-effective and easy to install alternative to traditional stone or aggregate drainage collection systems.

RESULTS

Pictures show the Installation of 65,000m2 of TRANSNET® TN350 geonet geocomposite drain on two cell batter slopes within the landfill.

Cell 3 sidewall (standard cell) had 200m  slope lengths and Cell 4 sidewall (piggyback cell expansion) approx. 60m length.

The TRANSNET® geonet geocomposite are simple to install and provide a reliable and uniform drainage layer for leachate collection and removal systems of landfills.

TRANSNET® geonets features

Largest biplanar geonet core thickness of 12mm providing superior flow capacity. Virgin HDPE core with thermally bonded geotextile. Ply adhesion available  > 360 N/m Compressive strength from 450kPa to a massive 2275 kPa.

Choosing the right geonet for your application will depend on the gradient of the site, the overall load and a range of other factors. For assistance in choosing the right product for your individual project, contact the specialist engineering team at Global Synthetics.