Drummondville sits on thick Champlain Sea clay deposits that extend tens of meters below grade. These soft clays have high compressibility and low permeability, making consolidation a long process under conventional loading. Prefabricated vertical drain (PVD) design in Drummondville shortens that path by providing horizontal drainage paths that cut consolidation time from years to months. Before installing PVDs we always run a permeability test to confirm the horizontal hydraulic conductivity of the clay layer. That data feeds directly into the drain spacing calculation and ensures the system performs as predicted.
For Drummondville's deep Champlain Sea clay, PVDs reduce consolidation time from a decade to under six months when paired with staged surcharge.