Unexpected Excessive Settlements: Kansai International Airport, Japan

Abstract

Kansai International Airport (KIA) in Osaka Bay, Japan (Fig. 2.1a) was singled out by the American Society of Civil Engineers as one of the “Monuments of the Millennium” – a designation awarded to the ten civil engineering projects deemed to have had the greatest positive impact on life in the 20th century. This is an even more remarkable achievement, considering that the first phase of the airport construction experienced some problems which, in a broader sense, could be characterized as a geotechnical failure. Built on a 1.25 km × 4 km man-made island (Fig. 2.1b), 5 km offshore at an average water depth of 18 m, this first phase experienced unexpected excessive settlements. These settlements were not correctly predicted either before or during the construction and caused delays, considerably increasing the cost of the 14 billion dollar project.