Construction of the New Istana for the Sultan of Brunei required that fill slopes up to 85 feet high be placed on very soft compressible floodplain soils. Wick drains installed in the soft sediments accelerated their consolidation and reduced long-term settlements. The consolidation also produced a strength increase in the soft soils that allowed the fill to be constructed without danger of a major base slip failure. Instrumentation installed in the floodplain soils provided data on excess porepressures built up during the fill placement, and on the resulting settlements. The measured porepressures and settlements were in good agreement with the predicted values
