A major geotechnical dilemma with development of a site in karst topography is judging whether the site is susceptible to sinkhole development. For those sites with known sinkholes or with conditions conducive to sinkholes, do you correct the existing sinkholes or subsurface cavities and build? .... or do you found the structure on deep foundations?

In addition to improving the subsurface conditions by collapsing the soil domes, dynamic compaction serves as an exploration tool in locating the subsurface cavities. In essence, heavy weight dropping on a close grid pattern is used over the proposed building site to locate and collapse existing soil domes. Various case histories are described.

This article is intended to provide engineers, developers and owners with a better understanding of how dynamic compaction can be used improve sites in karst topography.

Dynamic compaction for Sinkhole Correction