Geocells: The Plastic Honeycomb That Doubles the Strength of Dirt

The Grid That Doubles the Strength of the Ground

At the Port of Long Beach, engineers faced a daunting challenge: expanding a container yard over soft, waterlogged silt. Instead of costly excavation and backfill, they used geocells—a 3D plastic honeycomb—to confine the weak soil and dramatically boost its load-bearing capacity. This article explains how geocells work, compares them to geotextiles and geogrids, and shows how they can reduce road base thickness and even enable construction on the moon.