Many engineers would argue that geomembranes are only fluid barriers and are not meant to be load bearing in any manner. All loads should be carried by geosynthetic counterparts, such as geotextiles, geogrids, etc., that are placed over and under the geomembrane. However, from a materials and installation standpoint, it is virtually impossible to transmit all load to the adjacent layers. Additionally, it is not usually cost-effective to build a heavily redundant composite system that takes all mechanical bearing off the geomembrane.