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"TREVIICOS CorporationINTRODUCTIONThe Walter F. George lock and dam was constructed on the Chattahoochee River between 1955 and 1963 with the double function of improving navigation and generating power. Its 82 ft. by 450 ft. (25m x 137m) lock can accommodate large barge traffic and its four generating units with a plant capacity of 150 MW have an average energy output of 453,000 MWH. The dam consists of a 1,496 ft. (456m) long concrete structure housing the spillway, a non overflow portion, the power units and two earthen wing dams extending to the Georgia and Alabama sides, respectively 5,810 feet and 6,130 feet long (1770m and 1868m). As soon as the reservoir was impounded it became apparent that excessive seepage was occurring. From 1962 to 1985 a series of remedial works was performed using several techniques, but the problems continued under the dam, jeopardizing its generating potential and possibly undermining its stability.Finally, the decision was made to construct a deep cutoff primarily under the concrete portion of the dam to remedy the problem. PROCUREMENTOn July 5th, 2001 best and final offers were solicited by the Corps of Engineers (COE) for the construction of a deep cut-off to be built in front of the concrete portion of the dam from the bottom of the lake and tied into it. The cut-off had to cross an existing lock structure and an underwater retaining wall, as well as the remnants of a steel coffer cell left in place from the initial construction.The specifications required that the wall be built with a minimum thickness of 24” (600mm) and that it extended from the bottom of the lake to elevation -5 (1.52m) into the Providence formation, an impervious layer.While the land portions of the wall were on average 208 feet (63.4m) deep, the marine portion started from up to 90 feet (27m) of water and continued through different rock formations for another 100 feet (30m).Contractors were invited to propose their own method of constructing the cut-off and offers would be evaluated using several criteria, including technical, economical, organizational and experience.Three proposals were received and on August 14, 2001 an award was made to the Joint Venture (JV) of Treviicos and Rodio."

Jan 1, 2014

By Patrick E. Durnal, Henrik Dahl

"A joint venture of Ben C. Gerwick Inc., Sverdrup (now Jacobs) and DMJM (now DMJM + Harris) designed the $779 million seismic upgrade of the Richmond - San Rafael Bridge over the San Pablo Bay in the San Francisco Bay Area and provided construction support to Caltrans. Construction of the marine foundation retrofi t was completed by a joint venture of Tudor Saliba/Tidewater/Koch-Skanska and their subcontractors: Pomeroy Precast Construction, AGRA Foundations, Dutra Construction and Vortex Divers. Construction management and inspection was performed by Caltrans with the support of various consultants. MARINE FOUNDATION RETROFIT SCOPEThe retrofi t design of the submerged foundations included:??A total of 476 tension and compression micro piles (290- 1140 kips or 1290-5071 kN) installed through cored holes through the underwater bells at 31 pier locations??Fourteen 126/150/164 inch (3.20/3.81/4.17m) diameter CISS (Cast-in-steel shell) concrete shear piles (1160- 2660 kips or 5160-11832 kN) installed through new precast concrete pile cap extensions??Twelve CIDH (Cast-in-drilled-hole) shear piles (1060- 2130 kips or 4715-9475 kN) with 150 inch (3.91m) diameter steel shells to top of bedrock and 30 ft (9,14m) long and 11 ft (3.35m) diameter rock socket installed through new precast concrete pile cap extensions The specifi ed post bid test boring revealed deeper bedrock at one pier location allowing deletion of the rock socket. Thus 15 CISS and 11 CIDH shear piles were installed at 11 pier locations - 9 piers with 2 piles and 2 piers with 4 piles. Cut off elevations for the shear piles ranged from 46 ft to 60 ft (14.0m to 18.3m) below mean sea level and cut off for the micro piles was 8 ft to 46 ft (2.44m to 14.0m) below mean sea level. Almost all foundation retrofi ts required work under limited headroom conditions. Underwater construction connections required innovative design details and construction techniques for each pile type. The 11 piers had 22 precast concrete pile cap extensions installed in pairs and connected by either tremie concrete closure pours or by large pipe struts. The precast pile cap extensions were strapped underwater using large steel bands wrapping around the belled piers with grouted annulus. The precast pile caps were founded with 14 inch (355mm) diameter steel pipe piles, which were either support piles or seismic tension and compression piles. The seismic piles were connected in grouted corrugated steel pipe sleeves cast into the new concrete pile caps."

Jan 1, 2007

By John Vickers, William H. Hover, Paul C. Schmall

"Any sudden subsurface issue that threatens the stability of existing buildings or infrastructure is cause for immediate investigation and prompt remedial action. Nowhere is this more true than the nation’s dams and levees. A breach of any kind, no matter how small initially, has the potential to be catastrophic and impact a wide downstream area. Addressing the problem quickly and effectively is therefore critical. When a turbid water discharge developed from a rock drainage embankment at the toe of the earthen dam impounding Cannonsville Reservoir, near Deposit, NY, the source of the problem was quickly identified as resulting from an artesian water release from an underlying permeable silty sand and gravel formation during drilling of three exploratory boreholes in preparation for construction of a hydroelectric plant at the downstream toe area of the dam facility. Work was halted, intense 24-hour monitoring was implemented, and as a risk reduction measure NYCDEP began to draw down the reservoir’s total storage at a rate of a billion gallons per day. Input sought from contractors within the geotechnical community helped result in the design and development of a deep well system to control the artesian pressure. Once this primary objective was accomplished, modified compaction grouting was performed at the borehole locations to densify loosened soils, fill any voids created by the discharge activity, and seal off the permeable aquifer. This paper discusses the dewatering program, specialized drilling techniques required, monitoring and verification of pressures within the dam, and the grouting program.BackgroundCannonsville Dam, owned and operated by the New York City Department of Environmental Protection (NYCDEP), is located in Deposit, New York on the West Branch of the Delaware River and impounds the Cannonsville Reservoir. Built between 1959 and 1964, the dam has an impervious central and upstream core zone keyed into the glacial till foundation, a semi-pervious downstream embankment zone, and a rockfill toe and is approximately 2,800 ft (853.4 m) long and 175 ft (53.3 m) high. The dam is formed by two embankment sections. The left section forms the main embankment blocking the main river channel, while the right section is constructed over a topographic saddle or low ridge. Reservoir level is actively influenced by withdrawals through the West Delaware Tunnel, based on water supply need. Under normal circumstances, water is continuously discharged downstream to the Delaware River."

Jan 1, 2016

By Athena C. Denivo, Pablo V. Lopez, Sissy Nikolaou, Alfred H. Brand, Ahmad Rahimian, Rudivien G. Josef

"The United States Tennis Association (USTA) Billie Jean King National Tennis Center (BJKNTC) site is located in the northeastern portion of the Flushing Meadows Corona Park area of Queens, N.Y. The site occupies some of the most difficult subsurface conditions for construction in the New York City (NYC) metropolitan area, with unique challenges from geotechnical, seismic and foundation design perspectives.At the USTA site, Paleozoic crystalline bedrock is found at a depth of roughly 300 to 400 ft (90 to 120 m) below grade. The geologic history of the site is complicated, starting from the early Pleistocene, when the ancient Hudson River temporarily changed course, flowing across Queens enroute to the Atlantic. It eventually carved a deep valley through the Cretaceous soils, in some places all the way down to bedrock. A series of glaciers advanced and retreated across the region during the Pleistocene times, filling the deep valley with layers of assorted glacial soils. At its southern edge, the last major glacier to flow across the region built up a ridge at the southern tip of Flushing Meadows known as the Harbor Hill terminal moraine. This ridge blocked the valley forming a dam, so as ice started melting away the valley filled up with a lake fed by glacial meltwater. Layers of clean outwash sand and varved silt and clay filled the glacial lake. The ice did not retreat in a steady manner, instead periodically readvancing over the previously deposited soil in the lake, then retreating far enough to let the lake drain temporarily into Long Island Sound, before readvancing again.As a result of this repeated sequence of retreat, advance, retreat, etc., there are places where a “crust” of desiccated soil formed when the lake drained, and areas with interlayers of outwash sand where ice readvanced into the lake. When the ice melted north of Long Island Sound, the glacial lake filling Flushing Meadows drained forming Flushing Creek. During the Holocene (roughly the last 11,000 years), as ice melted further away and sea-level rose, low lying areas filled with river sands and marine clays, along with coastal marsh deposits. Table 1 lists the soil design properties on site and Figure 1 exhibits the geologic section across the site."

Jan 1, 2015

By Venugopal Bonani, Kumaran M., Thomas John

Liquid storage tanks are usually located in nearshore or coastal regions with soil profiles containing thick layers of compressible soils. These storage tanks are usually of large diameter up to 90m and carry high loads, and the tanks are supported by heavy deep foundations such as piles. These structures are subjected to huge lateral loads due to wind and earthquake, and any damage to storage tanks with highly inflammable liquids leads to disastrous condition. So, it is important that the top layer of soil (up to the fixity depth) should be strong enough to provide the required lateral load capacity to the pile. In a project for constructing LNG terminal in Odisha containing 2nos of 89m diameter LNG storage tanks supported with pile foundation located near to coastal region, for improving the lateral capacity of existing soil, the top 3m was replaced with compacted engineered fill (GSB). The site was a filled-up area with dredged soil from seabed, the top 5m-10m were soft to medium stiff clay with SPT N less than 10. The lateral design load on pile was 534kN under free head condition. Actual lateral capacity for the strata was around 200kN under free head condition which was less than required capacity as per structural requirements. Therefore, for improving the lateral capacity of pile the top 3m soil is replaced with well compacted engineered fill (GSB) in layers of 150mm and the capacity is proved by conducting initial and routine lateral load tests. This paper describes the properties of the engineered fill used and how the lateral load capacity of pile was improved to meet the design requirement.

Sep 1, 2022

By Andres M. Baquerizo, Matthew E. Meyer, Carlos Ortiz

"The Metropolitan Miami development, a downtown mixed-use complex developed by Miami-based MDM Development Group, has weathered the economic downturn by adapting to the needs and pressures of the local market. The development (a.k.a. Met Miami) epitomizes the term “mixed-use urban development” with its combination of condominium ownership, rental apartments, hospitality, office and retail components within Miami’s urban core. Initially conceived and conceptualized in 2004, the development has gone through several concept changes. Today, the global USD $900 million development approaches completion.The foundation evaluation, design and construction for this development included the use of innovative and state-of-the-art augered-cast-in-place (ACIP) piles. The testing for these elements included (1) the first-ever, multi-level O-cell load test of an ACIP pile, (2) a world record 5,200 ton (46,261.5 kN) equivalent top load test of an ACIP pile, and (3) continued the advancement of the ACIP pile industry to include the deepest and largest diameter pile installation to date. Those dimensions were up to 36 in (914 mm) in diameter, and 120 ft (36.6 m) deep. The project showed ACIP piles were a proven alternative for structures exceeding 70 stories in South Florida.The development includes four parcels. Met 1 and Met 2 are completed, and the construction of the Met 3 development is just beginning, with completion expected in 2014. Once the Met 3 development is completed, the design and construction phases of the project will have spanned a decade. The Met Square portion of the development, which will be a retail and cinema component, is proposed for the parcel between Met 1 and Met 2."

Jan 1, 2012

By Inc. Pile Dynamics, Daniel S. Belardo, Marcus Galvan, George Piscsalko

Soil nails are often utilized as a temporary or permanent earth retention technique for slope stabilization and for excavation retention for existing or new structures. Soils nails are generally advantageous as installation is relatively rapid and they can be installed beneath existing structures and where site access for equipment is limited. Due to the typically small cross-section of these elements, the inability to inspect the holes prior to grouting/concreting, and the various installation techniques utilized, quality control for assessing the integrity along the entire length is limited. Currently, quality assurance is conducted by load testing to verify the pull out capacity after installation. The load testing is typically done on a small percentage of the total number of soil nails. This paper will provide the results of a demonstration where the new Non-Destructive Test (NDT) method Thermal Integrity Profiling (TIP) was used to access the integrity of several soil nails along their entire lengths. This TIP method has been successfully used for several years to assess the integrity in drilled shafts and ACIP piles. The TIP method assesses the integrity across the entire cross-section and can identify regions where bulges, necks, and insufficient grout/concrete are present. TIP testing can also help assure that the contractor's installation methods are adequate and consistent for the intended design. For the project presented, instrumented Thermal Wire were affixed to the centered tension bars prior to placement in the excavated shafts. Temperature measurements were recorded from the hydration energy generated after grout/concrete placement, capturing the entire heating cycle. Manufactured defects were installed on the center bar at multiple locations. The results and conclusion will be discussed as well as recommendations for future use.

Jan 1, 2017

By Yoshinori Kurumada, Tatsuo Nagatsu, Keiji Uchida

"Cement deep mixing method has been utilized in the process of construction of an underwater tunnel in Singapore. The soil was improved by this method to prevent undesirable heaving of the soil below the excavated area. Quality control experiments approved the effectiveness of CDM method in increasing the strength of the soil and prevention of undesired heave of the ground. The process of the construction of this project and the quality control experiments results are discussed in this paper.INTRODUCTIONThe Marina Coastal Expressway is a 5.3 km long underwater highway tunnel with five lanes in each direction. It mostly comprises a twin box culvert structure (53.3 m exterior width and 10.89 m height) and was opened by the Land Transport Authority of Singapore (LTA).The contract zone C485 was the most challenging area of the construction; it involved a 700 m long underwater tunnel of which 400 m was built beneath the seabed at the mouth of the Singapore River. A double steel pipe sheet pile wall was built as a temporary cofferdam to keep water out of the excavation site, and the cut-and-cover method was used for excavation. In order to ensure a sufficient cross-sectional area for the flow of the Singapore River, the construction was divided into two phases focused on the left bank (Stage 1) and right bank (Stage 2).The Cement Deep Mixing (CDM) method was used to improve the ground, which comprised soft marine clay, to ensure safety during the excavation. The efficiency of this method in increasing the soil’s strength was approved previously. The design standard strength was quck = 800 kPa. Based on the study conducted after the construction, the average the Unconfined Compression Strength (UCS) of the soil stabilized by the CDM method was quf =3,000 kPa. This paper discusses the effect of the CDM soil improvement construction on the reduced displacement from the excavation and the quality control of the soil improvement."

Jan 1, 2015

By Masakazu Takano, Koji Suzuki, Naotoshi Shinkawa

"Cement deep mixing (CDM) method successfully applied to a marine construction project in northern Vietnam is reported. The method is classified as wet method, in which cement slurry is injected into the ground. Thickness of clayey deposit subjected to improvement is from 20 m to 28 m, and the total volume of CDM improvement exceeds 460,000 m3. This is the first massive application of CDM method in the region. Three CDM barges, each equipped with four mixing shafts, were brought to the site in order to finish CDM work within a period of seven months. Cement content used in the work was 180 kg/m3 and water-cement ratio of slurry was 100%. Unconfined compression strength of stabilized soil was 1,200 kPa to 1,600 kPa in average with coefficient of variation from 0.3 to 0.4. Statistics analysis of the strength with these values gave percentage of lower strength less than 10%. Trial use of needle penetration test performed to study strength profile of a CDM column is also reported.INTRODUCTIONThe site of Lack Huyen Port Infrastructure Construction Project is located in the sea adjacent to Cat Hai Island, offshore Hai Phong city which is around 100 km east of Hanoi, the capital of Vietnam. Left side of Fig. 1 shows the location of the site. The project contains development of container terminal, dredging of waterway, construction of sand protection dyke to prevent waterway from being buried, and bridge construction to connect the island to the mainland.Joint venture of Penta Ocean Construction and Toa Corporation was awarded Package 6 of the project, in which reclamation of container terminal area, retaining wall construction and terminal road construction were included. Plan of the site is presented in right side of Fig. 1. The site work has been started in June 2013 and is scheduled to finish within 4 years."

Jan 1, 2015

By Stuart Hardy, Xiangbo Qiu

The South Bank Place project comprised the redevelopment of the iconic Shell Corporation headquarters in Waterloo, located on the Southbank of the River Thames in central London. The site was originally developed in the 1950’s and due to the monitoring of the underlying Bakerloo Line tunnels by the Building Research Station it has become a seminal case history for the long term swelling behaviour of London Clay. The redevelopment, undertaken by a joint venture of Canary Wharf Group and Qatari Diar, included demolition of the existing building (with the exception of the main towers) retention of the existing basement structure and the construction of eight new mixed use buildings, up to 31 storeys in height. The foundations for the new buildings varied according to the building height and the below ground constraints. Two of the buildings are partially founded in reused under reamed piles that were installed as part of the original 1950’s development. The paper describes the novel methodology developed to assess the re-use of the under reamed piles which builds on the guidance published by CIRIA and the BRE for straight shafted piles. The paper also describes the physical investigations and numerical analyses undertaken as part of the assurance process and the procurement of latent defect insurance by the client.

May 1, 2022

By David S. Graham, Joseph D. Bailey, Paul J. Axtell, Michael K. Muchard

"Two instrumented test piles were simultaneously subjected to a static lateral load test by jacking the piles apart. One of the piles was loaded in axial compression via kentledge during the lateral load test. Both piles were constructed in an identical manner. These piles were constructed and tested as part of a construction-phase load test program for a floodwall improvement project along the Missouri River in Kansas City, Kansas. Details of the subsurface conditions, drilled pile construction, instrumentation, and load testing procedures are described. Data collected during testing of the piles are presented and compared. Potential effects of the axial compressive load related to observed differences in pile lateral response are discussed.INTRODUCTIONTwo instrumented test piles were simultaneously subjected to a static lateral load with one of the piles also subject to a combined axial load during testing. The load test program was part of a floodwall improvement project in Kansas City, Kansas. Known as the BPU floodwall, the floodwall runs along the south bank of the Missouri River at a Kansas City Board of Public Utilities power generation and water treatment facility. The project location is shown in Fig. 1.Drilled, 2-ft (610-mm) diameter piles were designated by the designer, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers (COE), as the foundation type for supporting extended floodwall footings. The drilled piles are fully cased, cast-in-place concrete, reinforced with a steel 12x74 (310x110) H-pile. In order to test soil lateral response and pile structural response under combined loading, the COE required that both a lateral test and combined lateral and axial test pile be constructed and tested. In order to most efficiently test both piles and to allow for simpler comparison, the two piles were simultaneously laterally loaded by jacking the piles apart, applying a maximum lateral load of 195 kips (867 kN). A constant axial load was applied to the combined test pile by kentledge prior to lateral loading and was maintained for the duration of the lateral load test. The total weight of the kentledge was 61.5 kips (274 kN). Fig. 2 shows the test setup."

Jan 1, 2017

By Wanchai Teparaksa

Pile deviation generally can happen after installation of driven pile particularly in soft soil layers. In this case study, all 242 diameter 0.8 m spun piles were deviated from 20 to 820 mm. The large deviation was caused by lateral soil movement in the top very soft clay layer of thickness about 23 m. This very soft marine clay is very sensitive and anisotropic having high water contents of over 120% and low undrained shear strength of 5-10 kN/m2. The remedial works were carried out based on theory of load transfer and soil-structure interaction. All deviated piles were rectified and used as the foundation piles with strictly controlled pile load tests. The construction of a nine-storey building was successfully completed founded on the rectified piles and it has been opened for the service for over two years.

Jan 1, 2002

By Gregory A. Stephan

A case history of design, prediction, instrumented static load tests on probe piles, installation monitoring, and integrity testing of production piles is presented. Based upon project-specific subsoil conditions, as obtained from several 60 to 80 ft (18.3 to 24.4 m) deep test borings, deep foundation system alternatives included driven concrete and steel pipe piles as well as augered cast-in-place (ACIP) piles. High structural loads, site-specific constraints, and the production time frame mandated by the project owner led to the selection of an ACIP pile foundation system that was designed for a pile capacity of 75 tons (667 kN) in compression and 35 tons (309 kN) in tension. Site-specific concerns were raised about the highly porous nature of fragmented and decomposed sandy limestone as well as the high grout intake during construction that could result in increased foundation cost as well as interconnecting of the piles in the rock layer. Consequentially, a multi-phase ACIP pile evaluation program consisting of instrumented compression pile load tests, in conjunction with single-hole ultrasonic pile testing, pile echo testing (sonic testing), as well as full-time production pile monitoring by an experienced geotechnician was specified. As a result of this testing and evaluation program, while grout usage was determined to be within an acceptable range, the instrumented compression load tests yielded data that allowed use of 55 ft (16.8 m) long ACIP piles in lieu of the original plans to use 70 ft (21.3 m) long precast concrete piles. This information was effectively utilized as part of the overall quality control program to install a total of 268, 14 in. (356 mm) diameter ACIP piles within the building footprint to depths of 55 ft (16.8 m) below the pile cut-off elevation as part of the foundation support system. Information recorded during installation included rate of insertion/extraction of the auger, grout pump strokes and pressure, total grout volume, and grout factors, as well as quality and strength of grout. Additionally, many pre-selected installed piles were tested for integrity with a Pile Integrity Sonic Analyzer (PISA) using both sonic and ultrasonic methods. This engineered, monitored, and tested foundation solution provided an effective and quality intensive basis for completion and approval of the foundation work for the building that resulted in cost savings over other foundation alternatives for the owner.

Jan 1, 1999

By J. Racinais, P. Vincent

"In September 2011, Menard Oceania (MO) was engaged by Mac Mahon John Holland Joint Venture (MJHJV) to provide ground improvement solution for the $34bn Ichthys LNG development. With close to 400,000m2 of mangrove swampland set to be reclaimed and improved, this project was a great opportunity to showcase the technical, commercial and environmental benefits that Dynamic Replacement (DR) ground Improvement technique can provide. The ground improvement works involved complete design and construction for the Ichthys LNG site located at Blaydin Point on a low lying peninsula in Darwin Harbour. Dynamic replacement and stone columns technique were selected to treat intertidal mangrove mud to achieve required bearing strength, stability and limit settlement to an acceptable levels. The site is underlain by a 3m to 5m thick layer of highly organic mangrove muds with very soft shear strength ranging from 0kPa to 12kPa at depth. The site is exposed to daily sea water level tidal variations of up to 8m, which created significant constructability constraints and slope instability risks. This paper presents the design philosophy, the process involved in the selection of the construction methods, the site constraints encountered during the works and a review of the results achieved, quality control and post constructions performance.INTRODUCTIONInpex Browse, Ltd (Inpex) and its partner Total are developing the Ichthys gas field to pipe gas to onshore facilities at Blaydin Point on the south side of East Arm in Darwin Harbour. The proposed LNG plant consists of gas receiving facilities, 2 x 4.2Mtpa nominal capacity LNG trains, LPG and condensate production facilities, product storage and export facilities, a module offload facility (MOF), a flare pad (FP) and associated off plot facilities.The proposed on-shore facilities are located on extremely soft intertidal mangrove muds, therefore an appropriate ground improvement was required to achieve required strength and stability of site works and limit long term settlement to an acceptable level.Various ground improvement techniques were studied to select the most suitable for the ground conditions and site constraints encountered at the Blaydin point site. Dynamic replacement technique was selected for onshore section to improve soft mangrove mud to depths of 5.5m and Stone Columns (SC) technique was selected for MOF off-shore section to improve intertidal deposits to a depth of 2.5m.This paper presents DR design and construction works performed between December 2012 and August 2013 at Flare Pad Area."

Jan 1, 1900

By Bernhard Bruggaier

Outside the oil and gas industry there is an increasing demand to install big piles for the foundation of ports, bridges, and wind-energy plants. This article introduces the design and techniques in using large MENCK pile driving hammers to install big foundation piles. Piles with a length up to 120 m, an outside diameter of 1.0 m to 3.15 m and weighing between 25t and 400t are being driven for these types of foundations. The required energy lies between 200 and 1700 kNm. Pile driving hammers that bring this amount of energy weigh from 38 to 300t and have a length between 10 and 20 m. Handling these big pile driving hammers requires a crawler crane on land or cranes on floating pontoons or jack-ups when working in water. Possible are either vertical or inclined piles, using a leader for inclinations up to 1:1.7 or up to 1:3 in a free riding version. Project descriptions demonstrate the versatility and practical use of the equipment under diverse operating conditions.

Jan 1, 2002

By Cen Guoji

The foundation of bored pouring concrete pile have been adopted in the bridge engineering of China since early in the sixties. They demonstrated tremendous technical advantage and achieved notable economic benefit. With improvement of bridge technique including construction technique work equipment, design theory, examination in quality and applicable range etc, the pile diameter became bigger and the foundation changed from shallow to deep-water. This paper examples Jiujiang Bridge of Guangdong in China, which is single-tower cable-staged bridge, total length of 1675m, and expouds adopted successfully the foundation of variable section large bored pile (upper part d=3m, central part d=2. 4m and lower part d=2m) on the conditions of complicated technique that the load is tremendous (it require specially to resist 12000 kN ship impact) and the piles have free length 30m. The paper will be to describle design project and construction practice of pile foundation with variable section, and to compare schemes of equal section pile and pile in sinking-well.

Jan 1, 1991

By Julie Clarke

In 1939 Dr. Ralph Peck criticized the Civil Engineering community for taking a bifurcated approach to the prediction of building damage due to subsurface geo-technical works. Specifically, he observed that Geotechnical Engineers concerned themselves only with subsurface issues implying that their results were largely independent of the presence and condition of the structures above. He continued that Structural Engineers charged with risk assessment of buildings approached their work nearly in isolation of below ground activities. Seventy years later, although the state-of-the-art has enabled a better understanding of soil-structure interaction, the reality remains that risk assessment from subsurface construction, is not yet an integrated activity when done on a large-scale basis. To help move beyond this, this paper proposes a new, integrated methodology for preliminary assessment that considers a three-stage process that involves the following: (1) traditional empirical relationships for predicting ground movement from tunneling, (2) recent advances in condition assessments, and (3) architectural designators related to usage and historic preservation listings. The methodology is applied to a study area of nearly 260 buildings in the city center of Dublin Ireland, in an area slated for an upcoming metro. The results are com-pared to the Environmental Impact Statement issued for the official project. Al-though the test case is for tunneling, the approach may be adapted to other subsurface construction activities including excavation and piling.

Jan 1, 2009

By Jeff Hopple

"Bluestone Dam in Hinton, W.Va., along the New River, is owned and operated by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers (USACE). Completed in 1949, the dam is 165 ft (50 m) tall, 2,048 ft (624 m) wide, and encompasses a water shed that is 4,600 sq mi (11,914 sq km). The Bluestone Dam Safety Assurance (DSA) Program began in 2001, and is a multiple-phase construction project to upgrade the capacity and stability of the structure to meet the probable maximum flood event. Installing 216 high capacity rock anchors was a major feature of the work.The USACE selected Brayman Construction Corporation to perform Phase 2B of the construction modifications to the Bluestone Dam. Brayman was responsible for installing the high capacity rock anchors, which range in size from 3 to 61 strands and have a design load up to 2,145 kips (9,541 kN). Drill holes range in size from 6.5 to 15 in (16.5 to 38 cm), and required full length corrosion protection. Of the 216 anchors, 57 were installed on top of the dam to resist overturning and the remaining 159 were installed on the face of the dam at a 45-degree angle to resist sliding.To gain access to the face of the dam anchor locations, the project required dirt benches, excavations with temporary shoring, and steel platforms. To access anchors on the east and west abutment faces, the team excavated over 10,000 cu yds (7,645 cu m) of material. Support of these excavations included the design and installation of three soil nail walls with over 145 nails and 3,500 sq ft (325 sq m) of shotcrete. The project also called for a 780 ft (237 m) long steel platform to gain access to the spillway anchors. The Stratus Group designed the platform to support two 85 ton (80 tonne) crawler cranes and as many as five drill rigs that were the equivalent to a design load of 3.5 ton per sq ft (335 kN per sq m). Once the final platform design was approved, fabrication of roughly 3 million lbs (1,360 tonnes) of structural steel began. Brayman’s in-house fabrication shop, in conjunction with Dura-Bond Industries and Advantage Steel, collaborated to fabricate and install the platform in less than five months. Flexibility in the platform design allowed for sections of the platform to be lowered as much as 16 ft (4.9 m) to provide access to anchors at lower elevations along the spillway face. In addition to the main spillway platform, Stratus Group, Brayman, Dura-Bond and Advantage designed, fabricated and installed six other unique platforms to facilitate anchor construction on various areas of the dam."

Jan 1, 2014

By Moonkyung Chung

Static pile load tests were performed in order to evaluate bearing capacities and mechanical behaviors of three different pile types: (1) steel-concrete composite drilled shaft with rebar reinforcements inside the concrete, (2) steel-concrete composite drilled shaft without rebar, and (3) conventional drilled shaft (reinforcement concrete pile). The material elastic moduli obtained from pile load tests of steel-concrete composite drilled shafts with and without rebar reinforcement were found out to be similar. On the other hand, the elastic modulus of steel-concrete composite drilled shafts is almost twice as high as that of the conventional drilled shaft. The ultimate strengths of the steel-concrete composite drilled shaft with rebar, the steel-concrete composite drilled shaft without rebar, and the conventional drilled shaft were 9,810, 7,848, and 4,414kN, respectively. The results of these load tests reveal that the ultimate strengths of the steel-concrete composite drilled shaft with reinforcement and that without reinforcement are 2.22 times and 1.78 times greater that that of the drilled shaft. The structural failures of the steel-concrete composite drilled shafts occurred either at the boundary between tip of steel casing and rock-socketed concrete.

Jan 1, 2010

By Steve Davidow, Scott Tunison

As the demand for electric power grows and generation facilities are constructed in more remote areas, the industry faces an increasing number of foundation construction challenges. The importance of quality geotechnical information prior to construction is accentuated by the linear nature of the projects and the potential for drastic changes from one end to the other, but is often difficult or unfeasible to obtain. Alignments are crossing remote, rugged and/or environmentally protected terrain, and completing a comprehensive geotechnical program is made challenging from an access or economic standpoint, or both. In these situations, the industry needs a flexible foundation alternative. This paper will present micropiles as that alternative and demonstrate how the implementation of micropile foundations mitigated these challenges on the Koolau-Wailupe 46 kV Circuits in Oahu, Hawaii, which involved rugged, steep slopes and helicopter construction methods. It will detail the selection of micropiles over other foundation options, micropile and steel pile cap design methodologies, foundation construction, and quality control. Special attention will be given to the unique geology in the area, and why precise identification of saprolite and basalt layers was integral to the successful performance of the foundations. The intention is to communicate the benefits of a flexible solution based on continuous collaboration between design and construction.