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By Vijayakumar Viramuthu, Martin Heinrich

Tower of Lot L, L1 & M, Kuala Lumpur City Centre when completed would stand 700 m tall. This Mega tall Skyscraper would merely be less than 500 m away from the world tallest Twin Tower, the Petronas Twin Tower. From June 2018 to February 2020 BAUER (MALAYSIA) SDN. BHD. constructed 225 nos bored piles with diameters of 2.0 m and 2.5 m for this tower. To comply with the depth requirement of the initial design and the need to have the pile toe 2.0 m above competent bedrock, the drilling equipment was required to be able to achieve a maximum drilling depth of 150 m. Actual piles constructed on site were deeper than 120 m. These dimensions caused superlative challenges which included but were not limited to controlling the open borehole stability over time with polymer, installing 70 t heavy steel cages and pouring up to 550 m³ concrete continuously in conjunction with installation of 88 t heavy kingposts into workable fresh concrete. The piling works were executed with one BAUER BG 48 and one BG 72, the biggest drilling rig globally available.

May 1, 2022

By Max Gwynn, Tony Suckling

"The new Wembley Stadium is the most spectacular soccer stadium in the world, built to the highest specifications, using the latest technology and offering visitors an unrivalled match-day experience. Wembley Stadium is the home of English soccer, dating back to 1918 when the British Government began planning a British Empire Exhibition with a stadium as its centrepiece. The Empire Stadium, as it was originally known, was completed in 1924 in just 300 days and cost £750,000 ($1.4m). It was finally closed in 2000.The new Wembley Stadium, which opened in 2006, features fully covered seats for 90,000 fans and a striking arch that sits above the northern half of the stadium. With a span of 315 m (1040 ft), the 133-m (440-ft) tall arch is the longest single-span roof structure in the world. It supports the entire weight of the northern roof and 60% of the weight of the southern retractable roof. This means there is no need for columns within the stadium and ensures unobstructed views.Multiplex Constructions (UK) Ltd. employed Stent Foundations Limited to construct the £10m ($19m) foundations package for the new stadium. The scope of works for the foundation package included the design and construction of all foundations, including all main works piling, temporary works piles for the arch and roof, and tower crane piles. The scope also included trial piling and pile testing, setting out and removal of spoil.Piles were constructed by using bored cast-in-place techniques with both hydraulic and traditional crane-mounted rigs. Stent also installed sheet-piled walls at three locations to the site’s northern boundary. In addition to the main contract works, Stent constructed a £2m ($3.8m) contiguous bored-pile retaining wall within the demolition and earthworks package (Figure 1). This work was carried out as a subcontractor to Griffith McGee."

Jan 1, 2008

By Kazunori Matsushita, Masaru Sakakibara, Kenji Harada, Naotoshi Shinkawa, Mitsuo Nozu

The Sand Compaction Pile (SCP) method has been widely used as a typical countermeasure against liquefaction in Japan, and its effectiveness has been confirmed in many case histories of damages caused by the past large-scale earthquakes. A series of studies were conducted to evaluate the effectiveness of the compaction method and other factors, if any, in sustaining a seismic force that is greater than the assumed one and caused no damage. Based on the results of these studies, the Architectural Institute of Japan (AIJ) has indicated in its “Recommendations for Design of Ground Improvement for Building Foundations” published in 2006 that the liquefaction resistance ratio (tl/sz) of the composite ground, which consists of sand piles and surrounding compacted ground, is higher than the RL calculated by using the SPT N-values of the ground in-between the sand piles. In this paper, statistical analysis of safety factor against liquefaction, FL, was performed by using the SPT N-values of ground in Port Island and Rokko Island which were both fully reclaimed islands in Kobe city during the 1995 Hyogo-ken Nambu Earthquake (classified as intense shaking) and, together with the consideration of relative settlement, resulted in tl/sz of the composite ground being 1.5~2.5 times of tl/sz of the soil in-between piles after improvement. Furthermore, the liquefaction resistance curve of SCP-improved sites obtained from the relationship between SPT N-values and cyclic shear stress ratio during the 2011 off the Pacific Coast of Tohoku Earthquake, which was regarded as long-duration earthquake, was plotted to the left side of the curve originally proposed by Japan Road Association. Thus, the liquefaction resistance of the improved ground was found to be higher than that of the natural ground, even for the same SPT N-values, verifying the validity of the AIJ recommendation.

Jan 1, 2017

Jan 1, 2002

Jan 1, 2003

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 Anthony L. Reynolds, Clifford J. Wren

"The adoption of a significant pile testing regime, the use of Eurocode 7 as the design standard, the development of lean construction techniques, and lateral thinking in overcoming some considerable construction challenges allowed Stent Foundations to construct the foundations for the new Wembley Stadium, London, on time and within budget. In addition to the piling works for the main stadium, and after significant design development, a large number of extra piles were required to raise the new iconic roof Arch to its final position some 133 metres above the ground. A 1,400m long contiguous bored pile wall was also constructed to allow for excavation and formation of the new pitch. INTRODUCTIONHjstorjcal lntrodyctionWembley Stadium is the 'home of English football'. As long ago as the 1880's, Wembley Park leisure grounds had football pitches and running tracks.In 1918 the British Government began planning a British Empire Exhibition with a stadium as its centrepiece. The Exhibition area covered 219 acres and the area on which a former abandoned tower called Watkins Folly had stood was chosen as the site for the new stadium (http://www.wembleystadium.com).The Empire Stadium, as it was originally known, was designed by architects Sir John Simpson and Maxwell Ayerton and the engineer Sir Owen Williams. It took just 300 days to complete at a cost of £750,000 ($1.4m), and was built using 25,000 tons of ferro concrete, 1,000 tons of steel, and over half a million rivets.The Empire Exhibition was a remarkable event, containing fountains, lakes, gardens, and many pavilions, each representing the architectural style of the countries exhibiting. It was opened on 23rd April 1924 and the final attendance was over 27 million, with 4.5 million admissions to the Empire Stadium alone."

Jan 1, 2005

Jan 1, 2001

By Maurice Guillaud

The most striking innovations on diaphragm-wall construction plant are those associated with continuous real-time trajectory monitoring of the excavating tool (either a grab or a hydro-cutter). The recent equipments are fitted with clinometers and gyrometers to control deflection, rotation or deviation from the vertical, thus allowing to install diaphragm-walls with a verticality accuracy of less than 0.3%. One of the greatest advantages of extensive use of on-board IT systems on the Hydrocutters and hydraulic grab machines is that it aids quality control by automatically producing complete real-time reports of all excavating data (verticality, depth, type of ground, rate of progress, stoppages, etc.). These reports are available to the Engineer, providing the total transparency required for Works Supervision and the Quality Assurance Plan. They also provide the Contractor with input data for databases used for optimising efficiency and progress criteria on future jobs.

Jan 1, 2002

Jan 1, 1991

By Ross T. McGillivray, David S. Graham, Dan A. Brown, Steven D. Dapp

"The Selmon Expressway includes an elevated structure extending across several miles of weathered karstic limestone geology, and represents a challenge for design because of the high variability of the material and the difficulty in characterizing the strength. The nature of the epikarst in this region of Tampa is such that variability can be extreme within distances of only a few feet. The weathered rock includes extremely soft soil infill within solution features on and within the formation. The limestone is so weathered that coring typically does not yield useful samples for strength testing, and in-situ Standard Penetration Testing (SPT) tests often encounter refusal blow counts. Thus the challenge for foundation design includes two components of reliability risks: the uncertainty associated with the ground conditions at a given foundation location plus the uncertainty associated with the foundation performance at a given location even when the stratigraphy is determined.This paper describes the design approach that has been implemented successfully for two projects at the Lee Roy Selmon Crosstown Expressway (LRS) in Tampa, Florida: the assessment and remediation of the reversible elevated lane (REL) foundations constructed in 2004, and the elevated expressways widening project constructed in 2012. Included in this design approach is a method developed for computing axial resistance in this local geology. Design for axial loading relies primarily on the development of side resistance, which was considered less subject to performance risks than base resistance. The calculation method incorporates a statistical analysis of SPT data, tempered by engineering judgment, to characterize stratigraphy at a given location into either soil, intermediate geomaterial (IGM) or rock.IntroductionThe subsurface stratigraphy of sites underlain by weathered limestone formations can be highly variable with respect to material layer thicknesses and strengths, even over short horizontal distances. This is the case for much of Florida, and particularly the Tampa area. These conditions present a challenging environment for the design of drilled foundations because of the need for a reliable determination of subsurface conditions at each foundation location, as they relate to the expected axial performance. Contributing factors include:"

Jan 1, 2015

By Gustavo E. Armijo

This job was done in Morristown, NJ, with mono fluid system jet grouting for the construction of a new bank building. After the demolition of the existing two story structures, an excavation in loose sandy fill materials was necessary in order to reach the new structure basement level. Due to this jet grouting was selected as a medium to provide both excavation support and permanent underpinning, minimizing the adjacent building settlements. These two adjacent buildings were partially underpinned with a "gravity wall" made with 2 and 3 rows of secant vertical and inclined jet grout columns. Besides the classical jet grouting control methods, during the jet grouting execution, all the drilling and grouting parameters were recorded by a proprietary system called "Slogger". Additionally, after the jet grouting execution, an innovative result control technique was used by means of the application of the same parameter recording system. Some of the production columns were re-drilled and a comparison was made between the obtained drilling parameters and those obtained for the same age test columns. Under the referred existing conditions and in comparison with the conventional underpinning techniques, this project demonstrated that jet grouting, with proper execution and result control, can be faster than them and can maintain the building structural stability and act, at the same time, as a retention system minimizing the existing building settlements.

Jan 1, 2002

By Zachary Q. Maassen

The purpose of this paper is to highlight the environmental benefits of properly managing slurry waste as it is generated on site. The following projects will be used to illustrate the importance of proper onsite waste management. Project: Jet Grout Backflow Dewatering The goal was to dewater the backflow directly onsite to produce a dry, solid waste and reusable water. The backflow spoil was pumped directly to the dewatering system as it was generated. Utilizing mechanical separation equipment and flocculation polymer the waste volume was reduced by 44%. Due to the site footprint and high volumes, slurry waste removal and onsite processing were the only two feasible options. Onsite dewatering proved to be the environmentally beneficial option as it eliminated the need for slurry waste hauling and disposal. The benefits of utilizing a dewatering system are listed below: Project: Soil Mixing Spoil Recycling for Slurry Wall Construction In this application the spoils generated contain bentonite mud, cement mixture and organic ground soils. The goal of this project was to process the backflow mixture to recover reusable bentonite mud and separate the soil as a dry, stackable waste product. The treatment system replaced the traditional method of vacuum truck extraction and facility disposal. The environmental benefits of properly handling the backflow is a decrease in fresh water usage, bentonite additive reduction, and the reduction of CO2 emissions. The paper will consist of a project scope, technical equipment and process description, environmental impact reduction calculations and lessons learned for each project.

Jan 1, 2018

Jan 1, 1993

Jan 1, 1987

By Satyajit A. Vaidya

This paper presents a case-study in the design and construction of deep foundation element supported mats for two residential towers on an18,000-square-foot site in Brooklyn, New York. Based on site sub-surface conditions, conventional mat foundations bearing on medium dense sand, having an allowable bearing capacity of 3 tsf, were originally anticipated for the 16 and 25-story towers. However, when the tower shear walls were relocated to the edges of the mat foundations due to architectural revisions, the significantly increased mat edge contact stresses applied to the soil subgrade resulted in calculated settlements of a magnitude that would adversely impact the proposed structures and the neighboring/bordering lot-line building and rail transit subway structures. To address this issue, deep foundation element supported mats were designed for the towers. The design was performed as an iterative process involving structural SAFE and geotechnical Plaxis finite element computer analysis to develop a coordinated geo-structural model of the foundation system. Initial presumptive design values of 45 pci and 445 kips/inch were used for the modulus of subgrade reaction and minimum deep foundation element stiffness, respectively. The designed foundation system consisted of 40 and 60-inch-thick mat foundations for the 16 and 25 story towers, respectively. Initially, the deep foundation elements were designed as 50-foot-long, 14-inch-diameter elements installed to sustain a maximum individual compressive load of 250 tons. The final deep foundation element design was subsequently refined to consist of a 48-foot-long, drilled and grouted IBO Titan 103/51 element designed to sustain a maximum load of 167 tons. Subsequent field load tests on the deep foundation elements confirmed element stiffness ranging from 1,040 to 1,530 kips/inch, with measured mobilized side shear of about 29 psi. The mat foundation reinforcement was adjusted for the pile stiffness values determined in the field load tests, and the deep foundation supported mats were constructed. The two towers were subsequently constructed, and have performed successfully.

Jan 1, 2010

By Daniel P. Stare, Lucian P. Spiteri, Christopher M. Hallahan, James C. Myers

Buckeye Lake Dam was substantially remediated between 2015 and 2018 as a result of unacceptable dam safety performance. A permanent seepage cutoff, consisting primarily of a soil mixed cutoff wall (SMCW) with occasional sections of steel sheet piling, was constructed along the dam alignment. Closures were required at the terminus of the soil mix elements with existing structures or coffer cells, and at locations where new sheet piling was constructed parallel to the new soil mixed cutoff wall, creating a short circuit seepage path. The original proposed design to construct these closures included permeation grouting methods with chemical grouts. However, a combination of multiple chemical grout types, multiple grout pipes, and an extensive post-grouting verification program was required to ensure the design intent was achieved. After award of the project, the specialty grouting contractor elected to evaluate jet grouting as an alternative closure construction method. The advantages of the jet grouting option offered potential schedule and cost savings to the project as well as a superior product for seepage reduction, given the mixed soil conditions at the site. This paper presents an examination of the site conditions and project goals for the construction of the proposed closure elements for the rehabilitation of Buckeye Lake Dam. Descriptions of the original and alternative treatment methods are provided, with expected performance results. A description of the relative strengths and deficiencies of each method, as well as the feasibility and constructability of each method is provided. The implementation of the jet grouting program is presented, including a discussion of the design elements, quality control test methods, movement monitoring, and verification test methods. This paper also examines the risks associated with jet grouting and how those risks were mitigated during the grouting operations. HISTORY Buckeye Lake is situated approximately 28 miles east of Columbus, Ohio and is managed and operated by the Ohio Department of Natural Resources (ODNR) as part of the Ohio State Parks system. The lake is impounded by natural features that exist along the south and east banks of the reservoir, and by the embankment structure constructed along the north and west banks of the reservoir (see Fig. 1). The reservoir site was originally a natural swamp and the original purpose of the constructed dam and reservoir was to provide water to the Ohio and Erie Canal System. Several dam alignments and configurations were constructed during its early history; however, the original embankment is comprised of homogeneous earthen fill. The embankment is 15 ft (4.6 m) high and extends 4.1 miles (6.6 km) from the North Shore abutment along the east, continuing to the abutment at Lieb’s Island to the West. Several spillway and outlet structures exist along the embankment alignment. Most noteworthy are Seller’s Spillway and Amil Spillway. Fig. 2 is a Plan View of the embankment alignment and appurtenant structures at Buckeye Lake.

Jan 1, 2019

By Abid O. Adekunte, David Greentree, David Hilton

"The construction industry is witnessing an upsurge in demand by property developers to have basements incorporated into their residential and commercial development schemes. This is attributable to perceived improvement to aesthetic and commercial values of buildings by underground space, amongst property owners. This trend is compelling more owners of buildings with no basements to explore the possibility of creating underground additional space beneath their existing buildings. The creation of a basement beneath an existing building entails the installation of a reinforced concrete (RC) underpinning system, temporary works, bulk excavation to basement formation level and construction of the basement structure, with associated aesthetic finishes.The L-shaped segmental RC underpins are a common system of choice for such underpinning works. They are multi-functional; providing vertical support to the existing superstructure, providing lateral support to earth and groundwater, supporting temporary and permanent surcharge loads from adjacent structures and services, whilst also forming part of the basement slab. This paper focuses on the first function of the Lshaped RC underpins; capacity under vertical compressive loading from the superstructure. The most common industry approach for the prediction of vertical capacities of L-shaped underpins is the oldfashioned Meyerhof’s (1953, 1963) effective width method, which is based on the traditional bearing capacity theory, whilst accounting for correction factors for eccentricity and foundation depth.The traditional bearing capacity formula is surrounded by a significant degree of uncertainty; estimates are highly user-dependent, as capacity prediction is sensitive to the chosen angle of shearing resistance (?), while there are difficulties in accurately measuring the in-situ ??value of cohesionless soils. In addition, the effective width approach has been shown to be very conservative by many research workers. The segmental RC underpins presented in this paper have been designed with an alternative less conservative method, which involves the use of a recently proposed consistent work-hardening plasticity model calibrated with field-based tests on footings of various aspect ratios and relative embedment in sand. The paper highlights the principles behind underpinning works for urban basement construction, the design of L-shaped RC underpins with the recently proposed plasticity model and the advantages of the method over traditional bearing capacity solutions and pre-existing plasticity models."

Jan 1, 2016

By James M. Tantalla, Jr. Ellman

"Construction of the powerhouse for the Willow Island Hydroelectric Project, located at the Willow Island Lock and Dam, required a 120-ft deep temporary excavation inside the limits of a cellular cofferdam on the Ohio River side of the excavation and a soil-bentonite seepage cut-off wall on the landward side of the excavation. Stability analyses were performed for critical sections to evaluate the stability of the soil slopes and rock cuts using limit equilibrium, tension crack, and buckling analysis techniques. The stability analyses indicated adequate factors of safety through the landside embankment sections, and for the weighting berm soil slopes in front of the riverside cellular cofferdam. However, the results of deep-seated stability analyses through the rock supporting the riverside cellular cofferdam indicated marginal factors of safety for the 100-year flood condition. Consequently, the riverside portion of the excavation required enhanced stability measures, namely the installation of long, high-capacity rock anchors. Also, the dewatering system was modified to lower the site piezometric head to near the top of rock to improve the stability of the rock cuts.Thirty high-capacity rock anchors were installed on the upstream, riverside, and downstream sides of the cofferdam rock cut. The rock anchors consisted of multiple, seven-wire strands designed to provide the full-required design load at 60% of the strand capacity. Rock anchor loads varied from 1,968 to 2,074 kips. The maximum number of strands per anchor was 59. Bond lengths assumed an allowable bond stress of 100 psi based on the rock bond from pull-out tests.Project DescriptionAmerican Municipal Power, a nonprofit organization that owns and operates electric generation facilities for its member communities, has been in the process of constructing hydroelectric power plants adjacent to existing navigation locks and dams along the Ohio River. The Willow Island Hydroelectric Plant was recently completed on the West Virginia bank of the river adjacent to the US Army Corp of Engineers (USACE) Willow Island Lock and Dam. The plant is on the opposite river bank to the locks, and includes two turbine generating units with FERC rated capacity of 44MW at a 20-foot head differential. The Ruhlin Company of Sharon Center, Ohio was awarded contracts to construct both the cofferdam and the powerhouse. Construction began in mid-2011, and was completed in early 2016."

Jan 1, 2016

By Mohamed Elgouhary, Carol L. Tasillo, Daniel Koziol

"The Bolivar Dam, located near the Village of Bolivar, Ohio is one of a system of dams designed to provide flood control and water conservation in the Muskingum Watershed. The Bolivar Dam is a “dry dam” that only impounds water during flood events. In order to address problematic seepage, which negatively affects the structural stability of the dam, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers (USACE) designed a partial-depth and partial-length Seepage Barrier Wall (SBW) through the upstream slope of the dam. For this project, TREVIICOS constructed a 36 in (914 mm) positive SBW by plastic concrete panel wall method and excavated using hydromill and clamshell equipment. The plastic concrete was manufactured on-site, which allowed for enhanced quality control and prompt service. This required the installation, commissioning and operation of a concrete batch plant on-site. This paper presents the challenging aspects of the design, manufacture and placement of the plastic concrete for the SBW in order to meet contract strength and permeability requirements as well as workability requirements necessary for tremie concrete placement.Project General InformationBolivar Dam is located in Northeast Ohio (Fig. 1). It is one of a system of sixteen dam projects designed to provide flood control and water conservation in the Muskingum Basin, which covers 20 percent of the State of Ohio (Fig. 2). Bolivar Dam is on Sandy Creek, a tributary of the Tuscarawas River.The Dam has been constructed, operated and maintained by the USACE, for the Muskingum Watershed Conservancy District. Its construction was completed in 1937 and it has been in operation for flood control since 1939.Bolivar Dam is a rolled earth fill dam, with a typical embankment section made of a central impervious core flanked upstream and downstream by a pervious outer shell with downstream rock toe. The embankment has a maximum height of 87 ft (26.5 m) and a crest length of 6,300 ft (1,920 m), and is comprised of the main embankment starting on the left abutment of about 1,500 ft (457 m) heading to the Northeast, followed by the terrace embankment of 4,800 ft (1,463 m) heading to the North. An upstream impervious blanket extends up to 500 ft (152 m) upstream of the dam along the majority of its length. The outlet works are to the left of the embankment, and consist of an intake structure with six gates, followed by two outlet conduits that finish in a stilling basin. To the left of the outlet works is the uncontrolled emergency spillway, which was doubled in width to 540 ft (165 m) in 1989, and excavated material utilized for construction of a stability berm against the upstream face of the main embankment. A concrete parapet wall was also installed along the upstream side of the crest during this work. In 1982, a toe drain, downstream filter berm and line of 35 relief wells were installed. The filter berm was recently extended an additional 200 ft (61.0 m) downstream and granular filters were placed over an approximate 2000 linear ft (610 m) reach of the lower terrace slope. (Fig. 3)."

Jan 1, 2016