Abstract: At beginning, dredger fill in reclaimed area has a slurry state and has a high water content and big initial void ratio. A laboratory test is carried out for the consolidation behavior. The relationship between void ratio and consolidation stress is obtained from the indoor test. The relationship of permeability coefficient and void ratio is proposed. At last, the permeability coefficient and consolidation stress relationship is put forward. The Barrons consolidation theory is improved by considering the permeability coefficient variable with time. A calculation is conducted to a vacuum preloading model test. The result is in accord with the test data. It shows that the improved consolidation theory is suitable to the vacuum preloading of dredgerfill.