Search Documents

By W. J. van Niekerk

Ballast Nedam is in Surinam constructing two bridges that will improve communications in the coastal region. The bridges will cross the Coppenam and Surinam rivers and will be founded on open-ended steel piles over 60 meters in length. The majority of piles are inclined and support prefabricated concrete girders forming the roadway. In most locations the stratum is consolidated cohesive layers extending to a depth in excess of 60 meters. For this reason, before pile driving operations commenced, it was decided that a number of test loads would be carried out determine the capacity of the piles. Loading tests were carried out on specially installed piles as well as on piles that would be used as working piles to support the structure. Working piles were dynamically tested using Pile Driving Analysis (PDA) equipment. This decision was based on the inclination of the piles, the cohesive nature of the soil and the increase of strength after the piles are driven. A good insight has been obtained into the real strength of the soil by comparing dynamic and static loading tests on vertical test piles. This made it possible to determine the required length of pile.

Jan 1, 2000

By Ali Porbaha

The use of soil nailing technology as a cost effective alternative for excavation support and slope stabilization has substantially increased in the United States during the last decade. For example, in the past thirteen years, more than 185,800 square meters of soil nail walls have been constructed in California alone. The conventional soil nail systems pose difficulties when ground conditions are subject to caving, for instance for silty sand (sugar sand) or cobbles and boulders. The construction industry has developed self drilling hollow bar systems (or pressure injected bored, IBO) that combine both drilling, placing and grouting in a single operation as a solution to speed up construction. While the system is extensively used for temporary applications, nevertheless, some concerns, particularly about corrosion, has limited the use of this technology as a permanent system in North America. This study presents several issues related to self drilling soil nail systems, the results of a field investigation and a summary of the research project.

Jan 1, 2006

By James Weaver

During the past 16 years, the authors have successfully used high-capacity rock anchors installed inside open-ended pipe piles, driven to bedrock, to provide uplift and overturning resistance for various structures including piers, bridges, power plant components and commercial buildings. These systems were ultimately used on the projects due to a combination of high uplift forces or overturning moments on the structures and the relatively poor subsurface conditions present at the sites. Other, foundation systems such as rock-socketed drilled shafts and spin fin piles were considered but were found to be economically prohibitive or not technically feasible.

Jan 1, 2011

By Rick Deschamps

The Block 76 project includes the demolition and redevelopment of an entire city block for mixed use retail, office and residential properties directly adjacent to Historic Temple Square in Salt Lake City, Utah. Excavation was carried out 65 ft below street grade and by as much as 50 ft directly below adjacent buildings supported by shallow foundations. Movements of the earth retention system and adjacent buildings were monitored in real time using automated equipment which complemented traditional geotechnical instrumentation. In the areas immediately adjacent to the existing buildings 9 stories or greater, anchored diaphragm walls were employed. Areas of the site not supported by diaphragm walls employed a soil nail wall system. Jet grouting was used for water cutoff in lieu of dewatering along the north and east sides of project. In total, the earth retention scope included 45,000 sq. ft of diaphragm wall, 104,000 sq. ft of soil nail wall, and micropile underpinning of 3 buildings. This paper provides an overall description of the Block 76 project. A detailed account is provided of the technical and commercial lessons learned. The project provided a unique example of how an owner can receive best overall value by acceptance of some technical risk up front. Benefit was gained by allowing the contractor to reduce contingencies within the bid from unknowns on a fast-track project.

Jan 1, 2009

By Lars Richter, Franz-Werner Gerressen

"The Eglinton Crosstown Line was conceived as the Eglinton Crosstown LRT, a partially underground light rail line, announced in 2007 as part of the Transit City plan, which included the implementation of six other light rail lines across Toronto.There were 43 stops planned for the Eglinton Crosstown LRT, 13 of which would be underground . For those underground stations a lot of specialty foundation works needed to be carried out. King piles, soldier piles with lagging and secant piles were mainly required fulfilling the tasks of installing the retaining wall system.The paper will focus on the original design and alternative solutions, discussing the benefits and limits of these. It will also explain the installation process in general as well as some specific features related to specific site conditions, e.g. limits in installation depth, soil characteristics etc. The required equipment will be explained showing the benefits and limits.INTRODUCTIONThe Eglinton Crosstown project is a 19-kilometre LRT line that will bring much needed relief to the transit woes of Torontonians. Traversing the city in an east-west slice across the midtown artery of Eglinton Avenue, the Crosstown rail line involves a combination of 15 underground stations and 10 atgrade surface stops. It is one of the largest transit infrastructure projects under way in North America today. Aecon has joined partners ACS Infrastructure Canada, Ellis Don, and SNC-Lavalin to form Crosslinx Transit Solutions (Crosslinx).As with many of today’s mega public transportation projects, the Crosstown LRT follows the Public- Private Partnership (P3) model. Aecon is an equal partner in the $5.3-billion Crosslinx consortium to develop the Eglinton Crosstown LRT project in Toronto. Upon the LRT's completion in 2021, Metrolinx, the region’s transit authority and also the project client/owner, will turn to the Toronto Transit Commission (TTC) to operate it. The impact of this highly anticipated LRT line on commuters in the Greater Toronto Area (GTA) is expected to be dramatic and immediate once the first train leaves the station five years from now. In fact, Metrolinx is estimating that within its first 10 years of service, the Crosstown line will be carrying 5,500 passengers per hour (in peak direction) and making 100 million passenger trips annually."

Jan 1, 2017

By Douglas W. Christie

Deep foundations in Washington, DC have played a role in the city?s development since the 19th century. Designers of government and commercial buildings sought deep foundations initially to minimize settlement of structures. As the western portion of the National Mall was made by filling in portions of the Potomac River, numerous memorials and monuments on the Mall required deep foundations. In recent years deep foundations have been used to allow underground construction for various reasons. Commercial developers have sought to maximize the use of sites by developing below-grade space for parking to meet code requirements and offset the limits on building heights. Underground museum and gallery space has been constructed to expand public space while preserving open space above grade. Access and security concerns have prompted the design of underground visitor centers rather than above-grade structures.

Jan 1, 2006

By Mike Muchard

Augered cast-in-place piles are one of the most cost effective deep foundation options available to designers but have been largely underutilized due to skepticism associated with quality assurance and hence capacity. When installed correctly, unit friction values can rival any other competing foundation system. To this end, many means have been implemented to increase confidence in the competence of the foundation. One such method is load testing via the Statnamic test method. This paper presents an overview of the Statnamic test method, advantages and disadvantages of its use, and several case studies where Statnamic testing of augered cast-in-place piles confirmed quality construction, brought about design changes, or proof tested problematic installations.

Jan 1, 2000

By G. Price

The Building Research Establishment installed a base load cell in a driven cast-in-place pile prior to it being tested under vertical load. The monitored base loads were found to be significantly less than could have been predicted by current design methods. The less than expected capacity was attributed to the drilling out procedure. An electro-level system installed in a second similarly formed pile, provided detailed information on the performance of the pile under lateral load. The information obtained was used to check several current design methods for laterally loaded piles. The findings show the potential dangers of attempting to improve design parameters from only limited performance data.

Jan 1, 2010

By Ramdane Bahar

"Abstract The design foundations can be performed using Menard pressuremeter rules that require a limit pressure and a pressuremeter modulus. In recent years, another trend of interpretation of this test is appeared. It consists of identifying the rheological soil parameters using analytical or numerical methods and then used to evaluate the bearing capacity and settlement of soil foundations using numerical software. This paper deals with the bearing capacity and settlement predictions of bored piles using two approaches. The first one is the method called ""Pressident"" which is a numerical program developed to analyse pressuremeter tests taking into account the Duncan and Chang model. The second approach is the method developed by Bahar and Olivari based on the generalised elastoplastic Prager’s model with the Von Mises criterion which is suitable to describe the behaviour of saturated clays under undrained conditions. The pressuremeter data, collected on various research and consulting projects are used to explore the relationship between limit pressure and undrained shear strength obtained by the two methods. Numerical calculations, by FLAC2D software taking into account the rheological parameters derived from these two methods, are performed in order to predict the behaviour of a single bored pile subjected to an axial vertical load. The predictions are comparedto the measured data.IntroductionThe Menard Pressuremeter test has been used extensively to measure in situ soil properties and for the design deep foundations in Algeria. These tests are an useful and economical way for obtaining reliable in situ properties of soils and provide the measurement of in situ stress-strain response of soils. From this test, the design foundations can be performed using pressuremeter rules that require a limit pressure, pl, and a pressuremeter modulus, EM. These two parameters are derived from the pressuremeter curve or deduced from existing correlations with undrained cohesion and internal angle friction (Ménard, 1957; Amar and Jézéquel, 1972), and are used to evaluate the bearing capacity of soil foundations and the expected settlements. But, they can also help to identify usual soil parameters required by simple constitutive models for soils in numerical calculations."

Jan 1, 2014

By Lawrence F. Johnsen

In 1989, the Connecticut Department of Transportation authorized the evaluation and design for a reconstructed Route 1 bridge over the Quinnipiac River in the City of New Haven, Connecticut. The project extends from the intersection of Route 1 with East Street, easterly for approximately 3/4 mile to the intersection of Route 1 with Wheeler Street and Stiles Street. The reconstructed roadway will be relatively on-line and widened to provide for four lanes of vehicular traffic and a single-track railway line. The existing bascule bridge and approach spans, which were constructed in 1924, will be replaced by a 270-foot span lift bridge and new approach spans. The lift bridge will have a main lift span weighing approximately 3000 tons, second largest after the Burlington Northern Bridge over the Williamette River in Portland, Oregon. The new bridge will widen the navigation channel to 24 0 feet and provide vertical clearances of 13 feet when closed and 62 feet when open. The project is located in an industrial area. Adjacent properties include retail gasoline sales, auto repair, railroad transport and bulk storage of petroleum. Existing structures include the Yale Boathouse and several retaining walls serving as containment dikes for petroleum storage tanks. The Yale Boathouse, located on the east bank of the river, was constructed in 1909-1910 and is eligible for listing in the National Register of Historic Places.

Jan 1, 1993

By Ali Ameli

Design loads are limited for piles relying upon toe stresses in rock due to uncertainty about the rock quality over the whole pile diameter because of rock mass properties or construction effects. The paper discusses the use of video images to evaluate rock quality at the bottom of piles socketed into graniodorite bedrock in a steel pipe pile project. Skillful interpretation was required to assess the 3D properties of the rock from video images. It is necessary to observe the rock mass characteristics near the project site for better perception of the rock features from the images. Video image interpretation skills were established by the evaluation of the cores drilled under the socket base and the results of pile loading tests. Correlations were found between rock appearance in the images and the rock socket drilling records. Rock socket acceptance criteria were developed through monitoring the drilling operations for the specific site procedures. Video images then served as one of the quality-assurance tools together with probing and pile loading test. Lessons and methods learned from video inspection in this project could be used to evaluate rock quality in similar cases.

Jan 1, 2006

By Michael Forrest, John Roadifer, Glen Gorski

"The Calaveras Dam Replacement Project (CDRP) requires large disposal sites to store excess excavated materials that could not be utilized for dam construction. Because of access restrictions during design, the disposal site rockfill toe dike area at the edge of the reservoir could not be explored to evaluate soil conditions. As such, the site had to be explored as part of the construction contract. Exploration revealed very soft clay and loose silty sand up to 40 feet thick that would not be able to support the rockfill dike at the toe of a large disposal site fill. Several alternatives were evaluated to stabilize these soils. Based on constructability, cost and risk considerations, cement deep soil mixing (CDSM) was selected as the preferred method of soil stabilization. The challenge was to design and construct the CDSM stabilization to minimize construction delays. A joint effort by the design engineer, construction manager and contractor achieved CDSM stabilization in about three months, from design through completion of construction. A rigorous quality control program included compression testing of both wet grab and cored soil cement samples to demonstrate that specified strength requirements were being achieved.INTRODUCTIONDisposal Site 3 (Figure 1) is one of the primary CDRP disposal sites having a height of 240 feet and a storage capacity of about 2,500,000 cubic yards. An approximately 40-foot-high rockfill dike at the base of the disposal site provides an erosion resistant toe for the disposal site. The rectangular foundation area shown in red was not able to be investigated during design because of access restrictions."

Jan 1, 2015

By Swaminathan Srinivasan, Jess A. Schroeder

"Landslide activity along U.S. 50 in Cincinnati, Ohio (USA) has caused roadway damage for decades. After a necessary closure of three lanes due to slope movements, emergency stabilization measures were undertaken to protect the roadway by providing a short-term solution necessitated by The Ohio Department of Transportation budget constraints. The landslide shear plane occurred on a sloping bedrock surface as much as 50 feet below grade. Drilled shafts were installed 40 feet downslope of the roadway shoulder and were heavily reinforced across the shear plane but steel reinforcing did not extend the full length of the shafts and was stopped well short of the ground surface. Instrumentation data has been collected for 11 years after construction has shown these “Stub Piers” have provided much more than a short-term solution and have provided an attractive alternate to conventional deep shafts or tieback drilled shaft options.INTRODUCTIONLandslide activity has occurred along U.S. Route 50 in western Cincinnati, Ohio for many decades. The site is located between North Bend and Addyston, Ohio on the right descending (cutting) bank of the Ohio River. Road distress caused by slope movements required periodic repairs over recent decades. Railroad tracks downslope of the roadway also showed signs of horizontal displacement and periodic repair. Visual evidence in 2005 suggested the shear plane extended below the US 50 roadway and extended out into the Ohio River.A weed and brush-covered slope extended down slope from the roadway at about 3H:1V for a vertical distance of about 20 feet. Above US 50, the hillside continued to rise more than 100 feet. There is a railroad right-of-way at the toe of the slope with the Ohio River bank just downslope of the railroad.In 2005, Terracon Consultants was retained by the Ohio Department of Transportation (ODOT) to perform a geotechnical study that included 17 test borings and inclinometer monitoring at 4 locations. Roadway damage was occurring (see Figure 1). After only a few weeks of monitoring, the inclinometer casings sheared off about 50 feet below grade, near the soil / bedrock interface (see Figure 2). Soon after, the roadway distress worsened, causing ODOT to close 3 of the 4 lanes to traffic and reroute traffic onto the remaining single lane and shoulder. Terracon was asked to develop a stabilization design under emergency repair conditions. However, both limited budget and time-related constraints necessitated a direction by ODOT that the solution be at least “pseudo” short-term (3 to 5 years)."

Jan 1, 2017

By Raffaella Granata, Wesley Schmutzler, Matteo Bertoni

"The Lower Wood River Levee system, at the confluence of the Wood River Creek and the Mississippi River, in East Alton, Illinois, has been plagued with underground seepage and, in 2010, remediation was deemed necessary by the Southwestern Illinois Flood Prevention District Council and the United States Army Corp of Engineers (USACE). The experts enlisted by the council produced a design that provided for constructing a cutoff wall approximately 2,000 feet long and up to 140 feet deep, through alluvial and outwash soils, and embedded in bedrock. This paper will describe the challenges faced by the Quality Control (QC) and Quality Assurance (QA) teams due to the complex nature of the project in conjunction with an extremely thorough QC/QA program.INTRODUCTIONThe “American Bottom” is an area of 453 km2 (175 square miles) in Southwestern Illinois, extending from Alton south to the Kaskaskia River, which is home to 156,000 people. In the 1940s and 1950s the U.S. Army Corp of Engineers (USACE) designed and built a 120 kilometer (74 mile) long levee system to protect the area from a 500-year flood event on the Mississippi River, which flows through it. The levee system has been plagued by under-seepage for several years. The phenomenon has worsened to varying degrees, depending on location, to the point that remediation was needed.The Southwestern Illinois Flood Prevention District Council (SIFPDC), to obtain Federal Emergency Management accreditation, in June 2010 commissioned a team lead by Amec Foster Wheeler for the design and management of the required levee improvements. The team presented in 2011 the project’s first set of drawings showing proposed design features throughout the levee system. The project was subdivided in four areas, based on the controlling levee districts, one of which, the Wood River Drainage and Levee District, was split into three subdivisions: Upper Wood River, East-West Forks of Wood River, and Lower Wood River.The project included the installation of a cutoff wall at the confluence of the Wood River and the Mississippi River in East Alton, IL (Fig. 1). The Engineer of Record (Amec Foster Wheeler) considered the cutoff wall as the only viable solution to stop the severe under-seepage that was undermining the integrity of the Lower Wood River Levee. The Lower Cutoff Wall (LCW) project is the subject of this paper."

Jan 1, 2017

By Gray Mullins

This paper presents experimental results from a study to assess the interface bond between a cast-in-place concrete seal slab and prestressed concrete piles in cofferdams. Three different seal slab placement conditions - fresh water, salt water and bentonite slurry - were evaluated and the results compared against controls where no fluid had to be displaced by the concrete. Normal pile surfaces were investigated. Additionally, the situation of ?soil caked? piles was also investigated. Both model and full-scale tests were conducted. In the model tests, twenty eight 15 cm square prestressed sections were used with the embedment depth varied between d-2d, where d is the width of the pile. In the full-scale tests, 16 specimens were tested. The prestressed piles were 36 cm square with the embedment varied between 0.5d-2d. Four of the sixteen piles were cast with embedded gages located at the top, middle and bottom of the interface region. The results showed that loads were transferred to the piles over an effective area, not the entire embedded depth. Significant bond stresses developed even for the worst placement condition. Recommendations are made for revising current values in specifications.

Jan 1, 2013

By C. M. Haberfield

"1 INTRODUCTION Around the world, there is a demand for larger structures, tall buildings and large bridges. While good footing design is important for all structures, it is even more important in the case of large structures. Recent experience with footing design for tall buildings (e.g. Burj Al Alam development and Nakheel Tower in Dubai, the Gate of Kuwait in Kuwait, the City Centre Project in Bahrain and Eureka Tower and Freshwater Place in Melbourne) has shown the benefits of investing in footing planning, design and construction (Haberfield, 2011, Poulos and Bunce, 2007). The footing systems for most of these projects include the use of deep bored piles or barrettes (piles of rectangular cross-section). Many use piled rafts where the piles, while acting to support the load, are primarily used to reduce settlements. A clear understanding of the factors controlling the behaviour of the footing system is needed to enable a good engineering design to be achieved. This starts with a sound understanding of the ground characteristics and individual pile performance, including adequate collection of data and testing. The best footing solution can then be found using recent improvements in data collection and analytical techniques, complex and highly capable computer-based models and the availability of high speed computers. This paper focuses on the axial performance of deep bored piles socketed into rock – both their individual performance and their performance as part of a larger footing system. Recent research and construction practice is discussed. In practically all cases, serviceability conditions control the behaviour of the footings. Methods of establishing the parameters for input into sophisticated computer programs are described. Application of the methods to case studies is included and it is shown that the behaviour of individual piles can be closely predicted. These developments lead to lower construction costs, better constructability and shortened construction time because of the better understanding of footing behaviour. 2 FACTORS AFFECTING PERFORMANCE OF FOOTINGS ON ROCK For a typical pile-supported footing, it is necessary to consider both individual pile, pile group and raft performance. These require consideration of the behaviour of the ground immediately beneath the surface raft or footing, along the pile shaft, and at and beneath the pile toe (Figure 1). Immediately beneath the surface raft or footing, the important factors are strength for bearing capacity and stiffness for settlement and interaction effects. Along the pile shaft, of most interest are strength for bearing, excavatability and stability; stiffness for settlement and interaction effects; geology and permeability for pile stability and, most importantly, pile shaft resistance. At the pile toe all the above factors for the pile shaft are present and in addition the pile end bearing is of interest. Below the toe, stiffness for pile settlement is important to at least a depth of twice the building width."

Jan 1, 1900

By Paul J. Axtell

The results of in-situ geophysical cross-hole tests on improved soil by soil mixing (SM) and jet grouting (JG) are described. This testing was conducted on soil improved by SM and JG columns constructed in the downstream free-field of Tuttle Creek Dam near Manhattan, Kansas as part of the seismic retrofit. Results of similar geophysical testing performed on untreated soil in the vicinity of the Downstream Test Program (DTP) area, as well as beneath the embankment at several locations, are also described and used for comparison purposes. In-situ shear moduli are also compared with those determined in laboratory resonant column tests. The increase in stress wave velocities and associated shear moduli by SM and JG treatment are presented for use in liquefaction potential and seismic deformation analyses of SM or JG treated soil. This data is required to determine the decrease in liquefaction potential and earthquake-induced permanent deformations due to SM or JG with respect to that of untreated soil.

Jan 1, 2008

By Sanjeev Malhotra

The American Petroleum Institute (API) method of predicting pile capacities in sands is reviewed. Factors that influence pile capacity such as soil parameters, pile parameters, loading effects and installation effects are listed. In addition, the simultaneous occurrence of physical phenomena such as grain crushing, pile shaking, stress-redistribution and plugging add to the uncertainty in the prediction model. To better understand the method of prediction, each parameter and the associated uncertainty is revisited. It is evident that these factors are inter­related and sometimes compensating. This discussion also draws attention to the influence that pile installation procedures can have on pile capacities and highlights the need for field experience with various pile installation procedures for designers. In summary, the strength of the method lies in its simplicity and ease of application, but the possible savings generated by an improved method are too substantial to ignore.

Jan 1, 2000

By Jeffrey Goodwin P. E., Melih Demirkan Ph. D. P. E., Kevin Tehansky P. E.

Just an hour drive down MD 301 from National Harbor, construction to replace the Governor Harry W. Nice Memorial/Senator Thomas ‘Mac’ Middleton Bridge (HNB) began in spring of 2020. The Maryland Transportation Authority (MDTA) contracted with Skanska-Corman-McLean (SCM) to deliver a new US 301 bridge spanning 1.9 miles from Maryland to Virginia over the Potomac River aiming to improve capacity, safety, and access of the roadway. The project area presented a geotechnical design challenge due to the installation of new bridge foundations in the problematic soils of the Atlantic Coastal Plain alluvial deposits. With the existing bridge remaining in service during construction, and the site’s logistical constraints placing new pile driving operations near existing abutments and piers, a complex instrumentation and monitoring plan was developed to ensure public safety throughout the project. This paper discusses the geological conditions of the project area, the collaborative approach of various design team members to develop an appropriate monitoring plan utilizing various instrumentation, an understanding of baseline conditional movements of the existing bridge, and impact response of adjacent construction activity to help deliver effective new bridge foundations while protecting the old ones.

Oct 1, 2022

[ ]

Jan 1, 1994