The combined surcharge preloading and vacuum consolidation have recently been widely adopted to accelerate the rate of consolidation in soft saturated clays. It is more viable than the other available dewatering techniques due to their higher degree of effectiveness and efficiency. This paper evaluates the effects of drain spacing (pattern), alternate drain length, and vacuum pressure applied on the rate and degree of consolidation using the finite element tool PLAXIS 2D. The developed numerical model is validated against the analytical solutions provided by Indraratna et al. [14] and agrees with it. The effectiveness is evaluated by comparing the rates of primary and secondary consolidation. It is observed that the longer drains placed in a triangular pattern at higher vacuum pressure accelerated the primary consolidation 54 times faster than the natural consolidation process. The applied vacuum pressure depletes non-linearly throughout its depth. The provision of alternate drain lengths has proved marginally effective, as the response of vacuum pressure is limited to a particular depth.