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By Mark Maday

As part of the I-94 North-South Corridor reconstruction program, the Wisconsin Department of Transportation (department) is reconstructing the Mitchell Interchange in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. Located on the south side of Milwaukee near Mitchell International Airport, The Mitchell Interchange interconnects I-94, I-43 and I-894. Reconstruction began in 2009 with the letting of the first advance contract for local crossroad bridge reconstruction. A second advance contract for construction of collector-distributer roads on each side of the I-94 mainline was completed in 2010. The main contract involving reconstruction of the core of the Mitchell Interchange was let in the summer of 2010, and is scheduled to be completed by the end of 2012. The core contract includes construction of three cut and cover tunnels along two system interchange ramps. Construction of the three tunnel structures is on the critical construction path. The contract includes an interim contract completion date that requires the tunnels to be open to traffic by the end of 2011. A top down method of construction using drilled shaft secant piles for the sidewalls of the cut and cover tunnel structures was selected as the preferred structure type to address subsurface and construction schedule challenges. The department identified in pre bid coordination that no cost reduction incentives would be reviewed or accepted for changes in tunnel wall type. A major component of the tunnel structures requires the installation of 1,500, 4-foot diameter secant piles. This paper presents mitigation strategies to manage construction risks associated with the installation of the secant piles including; prequalification of the secant pile subcontractors, requirement for use of full depth temporary casing, a site specific quality control plan, specifying drilling equipment, and developing a geotechnical baseline report for this critical component of the Mitchell Interchange reconstruction project.

Jan 1, 2011

By S. K. V. Avasarala

This paper presents a case history of design, prediction, probe and production pile driving monitoring, loading tests and installation of over 3,300 prestressed concrete piles for a building complex consisting of 12, 5- and 6-story over parking buildings. The project was recently completed in three-phases over a span of 4 years. The subsoil conditions were explored by performing 25, Standard Penetration Test (SPT) borings throughout the site. Various types of driven pile foundations were considered and following an evaluation of high structural loads and site-specific constraints such as variable depth of bearing layer of Florida limestone and quality of clay and limestone layers, a prestressed concrete pile support system was selected as the most economical and effective foundation approach. The building foundations were designed for a pile capacity of 353 kN (40 tons) in compression, 45 kN (5 tons) in lateral capacity for a deflection of 0.64 cm (0.25 in.), and 133 kN (15 tons) in uplift capacity. The axial and lateral allowable pile capacity and lengths were predicted using SPT91 and LPILE computer programs, which are generally used in Florida. The validation of these capacities was derived from 144 probe piles and performance of 12 pile loading tests on selected probe piles. Prior to installation of probe or production piles, a termination criterion was established using 1-dimensional wave equation analyses in addition to the design pile embedment requirement. The predicted pile capacities compared very well with the capacities from the loading tests on probe piles. This information was effectively utilized as part of the overall quality control program to install a total of 4,186 prestressed concrete piles (including 144 probe piles) in different building areas across the project site to depths ranging from 8 to 21 m (25 to 90 ft) below existing ground elevation as part of foundation support system. This engineered, monitored, and tested foundation solution provided an effective and satisfactory basis for completion and approval of the foundation work for this 12, 5- and 6-story over parking building complex. A recent reconnaissance has indicated that all the building foundations are performing satisfactorily.

Jan 1, 1995

By George Goble

I hope that after the long evening and all the exercise that some of you took you won't be completely exhausted to listen to a little bit about pile testing. The topic that 1 have been given is pile testing. It seems to me useful to break this topic into some smaller pieces so that we can try and organize our thought a bit. As I understand the terms "pile testing", I believe we are really referring always to capacity, one way or another, so I am suggesting that we organize the things we are doing in terms of measurement of soil capacity and pile capacity. There are obviously two failure modes and we frequently speak of pile integrity rather than structural pile capacity, but it's really capacity that we are concerned about. Further within these breakdowns I am suggesting that we might look at the topic of soil capacity in terms of static methods and dynamic methods and, finally, within each one of these, measurements of axial capacity and measurement of lateral capacity. Also here some of these subdivisions might be there for the purpose of symmetry and finally the same sorts of breakdown in Pile Capacity area.

Jan 1, 1994

By Bill Starke

The acceptance of AugerCast piles in Canada has been limited. Many engineers are apprehensive about the quality of the piles produced by this method. However, advances in the sensing instruments and computer technology can now provide satisfactory levels of quality assurance. Post construction tests such as the sonic echo method can give an indication of pile shaft integrity. Computerized monitoring of the pile installation process is an immediate and more positive method of quality assurance. The computer continuously measures and records the parameters which indicate the quality of the pile. If these parameters do not indicate a satisfactory pile, it is replaced before the concrete hardens. Computerized monitoring of the installation process is another tool available to the engineer. The data from this system analyzed with soil borings, site inspections, and possibly sonic tests can provide the engineer with enough information for pile certification.

Jan 1, 1997

By Almer E. C. van der Stoel

"Abstract This paper deals with assessing the bearing capacity of existing wood pile foundations. With a wide range of restoration projects being performed in the Netherlands, on many locations deep excavations need to be constructed next to existing, many times listed buildings. The building are founded on piles that are often centuries old, so a close evaluation of the remaining bearing capacity, combined with and assessment of the influence of the excavation is in place.After giving an introduction on Dutch pile foundations, a methodology is described to assess the bearing capacity. Aspects as physical foundation investigation, determination of the current bearing capacity and a calculation of the bearing capacity in the new situation are discussed. The results of both analytical and Plaxis calculations are outlined, focussing on how to practically use this approach in renovation projects. Finally, cases studies of the successful application of this approach in major renovation projects in Amsterdam, such as the Conservatorium Hotel and the New Rijksmuseum are used to illustrate the successful application of this approach.A Short Dutch Pile Foundation History (based on Van der Stoel, 2001)The first houses built in Amsterdam, in the 12th century, were very light constructions of timber without foundations. Because of the soft peat layers found in Amsterdam, the houses there suffered from damage due to settlement. In the 13th century, castles and churches were increasingly built of bricks, which made it necessary to provide support for bigger loads. Under the wall of the construction a trench was dug, and this was filled on either side by alder fascines. Between the fascines small wood piles were driven (by hand) on which another series of fascines was put. On top of this construction, were placed oak slabs on which the bricks were then laid. From that moment on, a problem was caused by the decay of wood foundation elements in the humid soil. In 1503 a law was introduced forbidding building foundations on public streets without permission of the Building Inspection (to keep the fronts of the buildings in a straight line). In 1528 a law requiring permission from the local authorities for all building activities replaced this law. In this period developments started which led to the use of the type of foundation that can be considered the mother of the current “typical” Dutch pile foundation. The piles used in this period were shaft- bearing piles about 5 to 7 meters long. The mostly pine piles were driven between oak beams, which were placed on either sides of a trench, after which other oak beams were laid across at regular spaces: the so called “pile bent” pile foundation (Figure 1)."

Jan 1, 2014

By Carnevale Francesco, Bracci Laudiero Alberto, Pampanin Piero

"SummaryIn the Port of Naples a slurry wall has been realized through a sandy layer up to a deep tuff layer using the Cutting Soil Mixing technique.The executed panels have dimensions of 2.8 m x0.65 m in plan and a total length of 25 m. Primary and secondary panels have been executed using the wet to wet technique. During the panels execution the following parameters had been measured: injection pressure, injected volume, verticality. At the end of the works an exploratory campaign has been carried out through boreholes collecting samples for laboratory tests in order to verify the diaphragm thickness and its physical and mechanical properties (i.e. unit weight, unconfined compressive strength).The interpretation of the collected data allowed to verify the efficiency of the method, the volume of slurry loss due to permeation during the panels execution, the quantity of the obtained spoil compared to the volume balance equation, both for the sand and the tuff layer.Eventually, the measured physical and mechanical characteristics of the panels have been correlated to the execution method performed.IntroductionIn the Naples Port area there is a polluted site which has to be hydraulically isolated in order to prevent the pollution of the groundwater that flows from land to the sea through the Port area. A hydraulic cut-off wall has to be realized and particularly a slurry-wall realized using the CSM method had been executed.To date, two stretches have been executed, 140 an 110 m in length respectively, as shown in Figure 1 and Figure 2.After execution, the slurry-walls have been investigated with boreholes. In-situ and laboratory tests on the recovered samples of grout have been carried out; furthermore, the geotechnical parameters of the mix composing the wall have been measured."

Jan 1, 2014

By Maurizio Siepi, Stefano Trevisani, Pagliaccim Federico, Daniele Vanni

"Abstract: The paper describes a large innovative project completed in 2012-20123 by Trevi Group, to develop equipment capable to install ultra-deep diaphragm wall. The project highlights the capacity of SOILMEC to design and build a new hydromill able to reach an unprecedented depth of 250 m, including new devices for monitoring and correct the verticality. The entire project can take advantage of the long and solid experience matured by Trevi and Rodio (now part of Trevi Group), developing in house or, else, select the elements necessary for a high quality product in the ground.The paper describes the results of different systems used to monitor and control the verticality and the twist of panel during excavation, together with the method used to pour concrete. Finally, the results of verification coring and lab tests on concrete samples recovered at various depths are discussed. The test field has been supervised by representatives of three of the major Italian Universities, and lasts almost one year from August 2012 to June 2013.The verification holes made use of an innovative combination of directional drilling and coring, to check the quality of the plastic concrete for the full length of the panel. The data confirmed that the test panel has high quality concrete, meeting or exceeding to the prefixed requirements.With this test, super-deep cut-off walls reaching depths of 250 m have become a reality. This would change the perspectives of dam engineering both for existing dams rehabilitation and for new dams design and construction. With the execution of this test panel, the technology of milled concrete cutoffs has made a ”quantum leap”, pushing the limit of practicable dams."

Jan 1, 2014

By Stan Merjan

Composite piles with precast concrete tapered pile tips (TPT Composite Piles - U.S. and foreign patents) are a new and important addition to the piling types available to the construction industry. TPT Piles were invented by Stanley Merjan, Vice President of Underpinning & Foundation Constructors, Inc.. U. F. C. installs these piles in the Northeast United States and licenses piling contractors in other parts of the country. TPT Piles have been developed for use in sandy subsoils at depths to 70 feet or greater. The TPT system (see Figure 1) is simple. A pile stem of conventional material (shell, pipe, steel, wood, precast concrete) is connected to a socket formed in a precast concrete tapered pile tip (TPT). This composite assembly is then driven as a unit by ordinary pile driving methods until adequate driving resistance (established by formula or load tests) is met in a suitable soil strata. This driving resistance develops from the displacement and densification produced by the TPT. Many combinations of tip shapes and stems are available to suit particular job requirements with respect to subsoil conditions and pile capacities. TPT Piles should be considered for use on a wide variety of jobs. The advantages offered by a TPT installation include: ? High capacity piles in marginal soils ? Minimal lengths required to produce these capacities ? The use of conventional pile driving equipment and procedures ? Pile inspection techniques that are the same as for ordinary pile driving Furthermore, TPT piles are economical due to a combination of a low cost per ton of pile capacity and high productivity, both of which lead to significant savings in foundation costs and time required to complete foundation work.

Jan 1, 1987

By Aly M. Mohammad

The Delaware River Tramway will link civic and retail developments in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania and Camden, New Jersey. Twin 300-foot towers will anchor the cables at either side of the river. Four high capacity drilled shafts designed by the Geotechnical Department of DMJM+HARRIS support each of the towers. At the Philadelphia tower, each 6-foot diameter shaft extends 130 feet deep and terminates with a 30-foot rock socket. The shafts are situated within the footprint of an existing relieving platform, which complicates the typical construction sequence. Also, the subsurface conditions at the site provide a unique challenge in both the design and construction of the drilled shafts. During the construction of the four-drilled shafts for the Philadelphia tower, a 6000-ton Osterberg load test was performed on the first shaft to verify design assumption and confirm the shaft capacity. The results of the test were utilized to establish load transfer characteristics and develop foundation design parameters suitable for the site conditions. By doing so the Design Engineer was able to reduce the length of the rock sockets on the remaining production shafts by approximately 5 feet per shaft. As a result, the test provided a significant cost saving to the Owner by eliminating 15 feet of rock drilling from the construction costs. This paper presents a description of the unique design and construction methods adopted for the foundations, also on the Osterberg load test including equipment used, number and locations of strain gages, and interpretation of results. The results and findings presented in this paper could benefit both the design and construction industries because it provides a comparison between geotechnical design assumption and actual field measurements; which has always been a challenge particularly for rock formation.

Jan 1, 2002

By William S. Gardner

It is certainly an honor to have been invited to address the Deep Foundation's Annual Meeting on such a vast and weighty topic as "Present to Future Design Considerations of Deep Foundations." Acknowledging the enormity of this 30-minute assignment, I hope to at least scratch the surface of the topic deep enough to generate some thought and reflection. Design considerations, be they current or future, bring to mind a number of important subtopics which comprise the design process. As shown by Figure 1, a flow chart of this process describes, in general terms, the sequence of a deep foundation design.

Jan 1, 1991

By Jan Pru?ka

This paper describes the sheet pile design for the Line C extension from Ládví station to the North of Prague. The first part of the paper describes the geological conditions and structural configuration of the project. Typical cross sections, the description of the construction stages, and monitoring are discussed. The second part of the paper focuses on the sheeting design method. It describes the method of dependent pressures, that is, how the pressures acting upon a structure depend on the deformation. The design process and verification methodology are described in detail with comparison of the results with in-situ monitoring.

Jan 1, 2011

By Dennis W. Boehm

The building boom of the late 1970's and early 1980's has all but used up most of the better sites across the more populated metropolitan areas of the United States. This means that current buildings and other types of structures are being founded on more marginal sites. The use of marginal sites has placed ever-increasing quality control on the installation of the deep foundation systems utilized for these sites. Several remedial techniques are available for the repair of the deep foundation systems. These include minipiles, compaction grouting and jet grouting. Eight case histories are cited where these methods have been utilized to repair deep foundations.

Jan 1, 1999

By Alexander Nikolic

The paper presents the foundation design and construction of a landmark urban redevelopment scheme in central London, UK. The scheme comprises the new Tottenham Court Road Underground station, Crossrail interchange box and associated over-site commercial development. The paper focuses on the design, procurement and construction of large diameter bored piles, up to 68m in depth, which form the foundation support system for the over-site commercial development at Denmark Place. The congestion below ground required an intricate foundation design solution which has been a catalyst for developing innovative load transfer arrangements and has resulted in the advancement of pile construction technology in the UK. The foundation system was also designed to cater for the construction of two significant elements of proposed below ground infrastructure. Selected large diameter piles have been constructed within 1.1m of live underground railway tunnels. An innovative D-shaped pile was constructed in a zone subject to particular spatial constraints. The proposed Crossrail tunnels will be bored within 1m of selected over-site development piles. In addition, a 30m deep excavation forming a new escalator box will be constructed in direct contact with the over-site development piles. The stakeholder engagement process is described together with the foundation design development and buildability assessment. The benefits from early collaboration between the designers and specialist contractors are highlighted. From an analytical design perspective, the entire foundation construction sequence was modelled in detail in order to assess the soil structure interaction and any potential adverse effects on existing elements of underground infrastructure. The results from the three dimensional numerical modelling simulation are compared with field monitoring data.

Jan 1, 2011

By Hiren J. Shah

The urban environment and geology create unique challenges for design and construction of deep foundations. The effect of these is prominently experienced in New York City. Three such project case histories are presented in this paper. The first project is a multi-use development. Relatively unusual glacial geology was observed at the site during the subsurface investigation phase. This played an important role in the selection of deep foundations as well as during construction. The design and construction aspects of the pile foundations, settlement estimates, a pile drive test program during design, piling equipment and production pile installation are discussed herein. A relatively smaller project is the second case history. A combination of drilled and driven deep foundations was employed in one area of the project due to its unique conditions. In another area of the project, an addition to a structure required the use of supplemental foundations to resist new additional loading. Tight space and load sharing with the existing foundations were important considerations in the design and construction. Finite element modeling of the existing and completed structure was performed which was an interesting aspect of the project. The third project case history involves a very large multi-billion dollar project in which various different types of deep foundation elements were used. The aspects requiring the use of such a variety of types and sizes of deep foundation elements included: geologic conditions, re-use of existing foundations, protection of adjacent infrastructure, construction staging, restricted space, loads, deep excavations, cost and schedule.

Jan 1, 2011

By Ron Bromenschenkel

The State of California, Department of Transportation is currently retrofitting a major interchange near the San Francisco area. The project is located in a highly traveled area of Oakland with light rail commuter service near many footings. Over 600 micropiles are being used in conjunction with CIDH piles for footing stabilization. A specially designed Soil Nail pile will support footings for a new light rail utility structure. Pile testing features in this contract serve as points of interest for future foundation designs. The presentation focuses on substructure issues of this incterchange retrofit. Both design and construction considerations will be covered. Design Considerations: ? Project Description ? Structure inadequacies ? Design criteria ? Design contraints ? Retrofit strategy ? Consultant analysis ? Pile Designs and Test Sites ? Contract Specifications ? Construction Plan and Cost

Jan 1, 1998

By Jay L. Hodkinson

Replacement of an aging twin span river crossing in Vermont required a temporary bridge to accommodate traffic during construction. Soils beneath the temporary approach embankment consisted of very soft organic clayey silt underlain by interbedded, loose alluvial fine sand and silt/clayey silt. Reinforcement was required for the southern temporary approach embankment to limit settlement and to increase global stability factors of safety. A ground improvement design was developed using Rammed Aggregate Pier® reinforcement and was included in the contract documents as an FHWA Category II Experimental Feature. Instrumentation intended to document the performance of the supported embankment was installed. Piers were then constructed and monitoring commenced as embankment and bridge construction occurred. Weekly instrumentation data reports indicated continuing excess pore water pressure, settlement, and lateral deformation of the subgrade soils as the embankment and temporary bridge abutment was constructed. In response to the unanticipated monitoring results, further investigation indicated that significant deviations from the conditions and basis upon which the ground support design was developed were made during construction. This paper discusses these deviations and their specific impacts to embankment support performance, how these deviations occurred, the role that the ground support system played in maintaining global stability, measures taken to limit further detrimental impacts to the embankment, and provides recommendations for contract document preparation and construction oversight to prevent similar situations from occurring on future projects.

Jan 1, 2011

By Shreyas Giridharan, Fursan Hamad, Sujith Gowda, Christian Moormann

"Pile installation in soil is a dynamic process which exhibits large deformation in the soil region. Experimental investigation of pile installation is both time and resource intensive. Numerical investigation can be a helpful tool for the analysis of the installation process. Furthermore, numerical analysis allows simulating various soils and loading conditions with ease. Finite Element Method (FEM) – a widely used framework for numerical simulations - fails to perform well for soil mechanics where large deformation and heavy material movement exists. In order to alleviate this shortcoming, Material Point Method (MPM), advancement to FEM has been used. In MPM, material points (particles) are used to represent the domain which carry the information and move over a fixed computational mesh where the governing equations are solved.In the present work, a variation of MPM, called CPDI (Convected Particle Domain Interpolation) is utilised which handles large deformation problems better than the classical MPM. Here, the material points are represented by a spatial domain which deforms according to the particle deformation. This eliminates stress oscillations while particles cross the grids. Implementation is validated and applied to pile installation in dry and saturated soil conditions. A 2D axisymmetric model is chosen, with penalty function method being used for evaluating contact between soil and pile. Sand is modelled via the hypoplastic constitutive description that takes into account large deformation, as well as small strain stiffness. From these simulations, various parameters like stress, void ratio and friction angle are studied.INTRODUCTIONOffshore piling is challenging in terms of testing and execution. Before the execution, predicting an efficient installation method requires study of various parameters, like soil conditions, type of loading, force requirement etc., and are the minimum parameters to be known beforehand. To obtain these parameters, testing a real scale prototype under different conditions is not feasible. Scaled model tests in lab can support in making certain decisions, but fail to replicate real behavior fully. Therefore, the need for a numerical simulation technique emerges, which can provide early predictions easily and accurately. This later can be extended to real scale tests, reducing the number of experimental investigation required.Simulation of displacement pile installation in sand involves large deformation due to penetration process, thereby making the application of FEM impossible, where large deformation causes heavy mesh distortions. Due to this, meshless methods are developed to treat large deformation in a better way. Among various meshless methods, Material Point Method (MPM) shows more applicability to geomechanical problems. This is mainly due to the ease of handling soil, structure and water in a unified manner."

Jan 1, 2017

By John P. Davis

The use of conventional, circulatory air rotary and fluid rotary, cased and uncased drilling methods in the vicinity of sensitive infrastructure can have deleterious effects on the ground conditions surrounding and supporting structures and the structure itself. Furthermore, the use of these conventional methods offers the engineer or contractor little information about the condition of the subsurface during geotechnical applications. Conversely, sonic drilling measurements and samples can be used to evaluate actual conditions during the progress of exploration and construction across a given site. This paper will discuss the history and properties of sonic drilling and explore case histories of geotechnical applications for the advancement of boreholes within vulnerable structures and on sensitive sites for several recent infrastructure projects ? a tunnel and railroad project, a dam grout curtain project, a bridge micropile exploration project and a tunnel instrumentation project. Project summaries will discuss the advantages realized when the application of sonic drilling techniques demonstrated superior accuracy, quality control, efficiency, productivity, penetrability, waste minimization and adaptability when drilling adjacent to or within existing infrastructure. Finally, the discussion will address the current testing and application of sonic drilling to the installation of micropiles, earth retention anchors, grout injection and instrumentation installation where the quality control benefits provided by the inherent soil cores, measurement while drilling systems, accuracy and non-destructive production drilling features will be advantageous.

Jan 1, 2006

By D. V. Roberts

Approximately 800 private consulting engineering firms in America specialize in geotechnical engineering. The gross income from these firms totals about $500 to $600 million per year. Sixty-five to seventy-five percent of this geotechnical work is per­formed by consulting engineers that belong to the Association of Soil and Foundation Engineers (ASFE). This paper presents statistics concerning the business activities and functions provided by ASFE member firms. The procedures used in typical projects are described. The paper concludes with a summary of major trends which are impacting the American geotechnical practice today.

Jan 1, 2010

By Donald A. Bruce

The paper reviews aspects of the construction and performance of prestressed ground anchors installed in soils and weak rocks. Attention is focused on good practice for drilling, tendon fabrication and handling, grouting, stressing and testing. Regional variations - not always logically justified - are described. The performance of anchors in a variety of geological conditions is illustrated with reference to recent full scale test programs. 1. Introduction In the United States there has been steady growth in the use of prestressed anchors in materials other than competent or hard rock, in the years since their introduction in the late 1960's. This expansion has to a large extent been driven by specialty geotechnical contractors who both imported foreign developments and conducted their own basic researches, in locally prevailing conditions. With such data and experience, these engineers have had the confidence to promote "alternative solutions" for difficult earth support problems to receptive designers and owners. In turn, being engaged in the details of design and performance monitoring has given these parties the close exposure necessary for the real transfer and understanding of the technological concepts, and this knowledge has generated positive feedback for the contractors.

Jan 1, 1991