A series of confined swell tests were conducted on a needle-punched geosynthetic clay liner (GCL)with tap water as the hydration medium. The effects of the static confining stress on the swelling characteristics of GCLs and the hydration time under different confining stresses were explored. Increasing the static confining stress led to: shorter hydration time; smaller final GCL height; less final GCL bulk void ratio; smaller final bentonite moisture content. The confined swell pressure determined for the tested GCL was 82.2 kPa, and the relationships between confining stress, final bulk void ratio (or final GCL height, final bentonite moisture content) were attained through the analyses of the confined swell test results in this study.