Slope Stabilisation, Hiriya, Tel-Aviv

Edge UK together with Arieh Klein developed a plan for the stabilisation of the slopes at the Hiriya waste dump. This plan is now being executed by the Ayalon Park Authority in conjunction with the Dan Area Municipal Association for the Environment.

The dump is some 70 m. in height and has received all the MSW (Municipal Solid Waste) of greater Tel-Aviv over the last decades. Within the last ten years, a transfer station was built at the foot of the eastern slope - this transfer station handles 25% of all the MSW of Israel. The angle of the slopes around the dump range from 40 degrees to 80 degrees at the north-eastern corner. A number of trial boreholes have been drilled around the site - the picture shows one borehole drilled at the south-eastern corner of the dump, next to the transfer station.
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El-Basateen Bridge over Jewish cemetery, Cairo, Egypt

The El-Basateen Jewish Cemetery is situated on the line of the new Cairo Ring Road, at the southern border of Cairo, Egypt. Arieh Klein together with Israel Klar developed the solution for the foundations of a bridge over this ancient cemetery, without destroying the existing graves. Arieh then supervised the construction of the bridge for Athra Kadisha, the Jewish burial society, from 1996-2002.

The solution developed and executed involved constructing a compacted fill over the whole cemetery, reinforced with layers of very strong Stabilenka woven geotextiles, and the pouring of concrete raft foundations over and in this reinforced fill.
The pictures show different stages of the construction of the bridge, including (clockwise from top right):

1. Bridge abutments with compaction quality control.
2. Geese walking on the completed bridge (view to the north on Jewish cemetery).
3. Raft foundation poured over the reinforced fill
4. View of bridge from the northern section of the cemetery, showing gravestones returned to their original positions above the compacted fill.
5. Concrete deck of bridge, looking east to the fill next to the bridge.
6. Formwork for raft foundations, placed over reinforced compacted fill.

   

Trial Boreholes, Kibbutz Shluhot, Bet Shean, Israel

A trial borehole was conducted for the preparation of a geotechnical report for the building of a 'senior citizens' center at Kibbutz Shluhot in Bet Shean in eastern Israel.
The pictures show the auger drilling equipment (picture on right), and the in-situ soil strength testing (SPT) equipment, using a local drilling company.

Trial boreholes give much information to the geotechnical consultant, and generally lead to savings in time and money during the construction phase.

Jewish Cemetery next to Statoil Petrol Station, Lebork, Poland

Statoil, the Norwegian National Oil Company, own a petrol station in Lebork in Northern Poland, as part of a chain of 160 petrol stations in Poland.
The access road to this petrol station crosses a Jewish cemetery, where all the gravestones were removed in the Nazi era.
Arieh Klein has developed a solution to rebuild the access road, with a steel structure providing an 'air-gap', so that it will satisfy the demands of Jewish Halachic law.
As can be seen from the pictures, the site is almost completely flat, and this has led to the developing of a solution using strong woven geotextiles within the fill for the rebuilt access road, above and below the buried steel structure. The total thickness of the road-base, including the buried steel structure and the upper layer of interlocking concrete bricks will be about 64 cm. For Halachic reasons, the contractor will not be allowed to dig more than 30 cm. into the existing ground, so as not to disturb the graves.