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By Abhijit R. Sheth, Craig M. Benedict, John Brun, Ara G. Mouradian

"Amtrak recently replaced the 1907-era bascule two-track bridge over the Niantic River between East Lyme and Waterford, Connecticut. The project included new approach embankments, with approximately 2,500 lineal feet of retaining wall along the west approach and 780 lineal feet of retaining wall along the east approach. The paper focuses on the design and construction of the east approach retaining wall, whose alignment is directly adjacent to an existing wetland area which required protection. An anchored prestressed concrete sheet pile retaining wall was selected for the east approach. A combination of concrete anchor piles and ground anchors were used to support the wall. The design of the wall took into account two simultaneous train live loads, support of electric traction catenary structure foundations, and construction live load, while at the same time preventing permanent impacts to the adjacent wetlands. The design considered challenging subsurface conditions, shallow groundwater, the close proximity of the existing operating tracks, construction staging, and storm surge events in Long Island Sound.INTRODUCTION AND PROJECT HISTORYThe National Railroad Passenger Corporation (Amtrak) recently replaced the 1907-era bascule two-track bridge (No. 116.74) over the Niantic River, between East Lyme and Waterford, Connecticut, along the heavily-traveled Northeast Corridor (NEC). The two NEC tracks, which carry over 50 trains per day, run east-west over a narrow spit of land known as “The Bar”, which separates the Niantic River’s marine estuary to the north from the Niantic Bay to the south, before crossing the river. The bay is an arm of Long Island Sound and is occasionally subject to storm surge from hurricanes.The 1907 bridge was built as a replacement for the previous 1891-era swing-span bridge, and was constructed parallel to, and 49 feet north of, the swing-span structure. The two-track 1907 bridge consisted of a single-leaf bascule span and four approach spans supported on stone masonry piers and abutments. The new bridge increases horizontal navigational clearance for marine traffic in the river from 45 feet to 100 feet, and vertical clearance from 11.5 feet to 16 feet above mean high water with the bridge in closed position. The new bridge, constructed 58 feet south of the 1907 structure, features a single-leaf bascule span of 141.5 feet, with an approach span on either side."

Jan 1, 2017

? Hollow Stem Auger ? Drill Bits ? Leads/Torque Arm ? Hydraulic Gearbox ? Hydraulic Power Unit ? Grout Pump ? Crawler Crane

Jan 1, 1998

By G. G. Meyerhof

The paper reviews the state of the art of estimating the bearing capacity and settlement of pile foundations in sand and clay soils, including the effects of pile installation, scale effects of pile size and embedment and non-uniform soil conditions. The lateral resistance of pile foundations and effects of eccentricity and inclination of the load on the bearing capacity and movements of pile foundations in sand and clay are considered on the basis of some recent investigations.

Jan 1, 2010

By C. W. Sheng

In this paper conventional construction procedure is briefly described for the installation of stone columns in soft ground in China. A viewpoint concerning the mechanism of ground improvement by use of stone columns is presented for discussion. Based on the information obtained from field measurement and observation three important problems relating to the construction and design of stone columns are discussed. Finally, a case history is given to show that short stone columns floating within the weak soil layers may in some instance be used to improve the weak strata of great thickness.

Jan 1, 2010

By I. K. Ozaydin

Analysis of piles groups loaded with large bending moments and both vertical and batter piles can be best performed by matrix analysis. In this paper, a case history about a tall marine control tower is presented. The soil conditions at the site and the results of the computer analysis of the piled foundation are summarized. It is shown that the pile loads are indeed less than the allowable load for a single pile. Pile head loads and moments are used in the analysis of the raft foundation.

Jan 1, 2010

By Willie M. NeSmith

In the Metropolitan Atlanta Area today, augered, cast-in-place (ACIP) piles will be considered on most projects where deep foundation support is required. ACIP piles were first used in Atlanta in the late 1960s, and application began to blossom in the mid-1980s. Current design practice for ACIP piles is addressed in another paper in this conference. This paper describes the evolution of the ACIP industry in Atlanta, and details the use of ACIP piles on major projects in the Atlanta area.

Jan 1, 2003

By Vladimir M. Korolev

The field studies conducted at the experimental-production sites allowed to develop the technology of arranging drilling piles in loess subsiding grounds over 25 m deep and over 250 mm in diameter, to select optimal compositions of flush fluids, to assess the carrying capacity and field of use of the piles under test and to produce a special equipment. The dependence of the ultimate axial pressing-in load on pile driving into the non-subsiding section, its diameter and method of fulfillment, as well as the ground moisture dependence of the specific ground resistance along the piles' side surface within the limits of the subsiding section were determined. The study results allowed to reduce the length of the work piles and the number of bars in the reinforcement frames. The obtained experimental data enable to give a preliminary assessment of the piles' carrying capacity under complicated engineering-geological conditions of subsiding grounds.

Jan 1, 2002

By Mohammad T. Izadi

Piles are, often, used for transferring load from the super structure through soft consolidating strata onto relatively stiff uncompressible soils. Downward movement of the soft soil strata develops negative skin friction and dragload around the pile shaft, with time. Traditionally the induced dragload is considered in determining the pile bearing capacity. On the other hand, field measurements on instrumented piles show that negative skin friction is reduced by the magnitude of applied live load. A method for calculating the pile bearing capacity, driven through soft consolidating strata is presented. In this method, two allowable load-bearing capacities are calculated for each pile, live load plus dead load and dead load. The proposed method, substantially, increases the allowable load bearing capacity of piles compared to calculated values by the traditional methods.

Jan 1, 2001

By Subrata Ray

A large no of power stations are being set up in Chandrapur area having coal deposits. Several industries are also coning up in this area. The subsurface is geologically formed under Gondwana system and consists of shale strata at depths ranging from 8 to 12 m. The stress deformation characteristics of shale exhibits wide variation because of it's geological origin. In view of this, a study was conducted on bored cast in-situ piles installed for a Switch yard project to evaluate load settlement characteristics of three test piles to understand the probable engineering behaviour of the material at the tip and the sides. An approach is developed to simulate the load settlement behaviour as observed in the field, theoretically. This is based on the concept of load transfer. The fit is obtained by varying the parameters, thus may be considered as iterative in nature. The theoretical curves closely matched the observed curves. The results of this study are presented in this paper.

Jan 1, 1996

By K. Rama Sarma

Piles are frequently subjected to lateral forces and moments in addition to vertical forces and hence the piles have to be designed for both lateral loads as well as vertical loads. In the design of such pile foundations, two criterias must be satisfied. First an adequate factor of safety against ultimate failure and second, as acceptable deflection at working loads. In this study the work has been carriedout to study the lateral deflection pattern of the pile. The solutions to the problem primarily depend on soil modulus. Equations for computing the values of slope, deflection and coefficients for many types of soil conditions have been developed for static loading for long piles. As analysis part is not available for the above methods for the values of depth coefficients in the tables. It is required to go for linear interpolation which is not valid and highly unreliable. In this present method, coefficients can be obtained for any value of depth coefficient (z) with simple calculation. The present method is very concise and allows one to ana­lyse any type of pile with varying depth coefficient (z) even without the availability of any practical data regarding applied lateral load (P1) and moment (M1).

Jan 1, 1996

By D. X. Xu

A pump station was constructed at the food of a steep mountain, very close to a riverside. To protect the pump station from being washed out, and to guarantee the stability of the steep hillside behind the pump station and the safety of the foundation pit when the station was built, cast-in-place R.C. diaphragm walls (Fig. 1) were clesigned in front of and on both sides of the pump station. This wall was 130m long, 0.8m wide and 29m deep. The diaphragm walling on both sides of the pump station served to prevent landslides and to fix anchor piles. The 55m long diaphragm walling in front of the pump station served as a temporary shuttering which kept earth and prevented water from permeating when the pump station was under construction. After the pump station project was finished, static blasting method was used to blow up the wall body which was 10m beneath the ground so that the water from the river could come into the pump station. The remaining wall body below this level was kept to prevent soil from being washed out. [ ]

Jan 1, 2010

By David J. Puller

As part of the value engineering process on a major Design Build highway project, instrumented trial pile load tests were used to achieve savings in cost and time on the foundations for a major river crossing. Two trial piles were tested close to failure load at 25MN. Following the interpretation of the pile load test results which included the determination of the ultimate shaft and base capacity, the mobilisation of the shaft and base resistance with pile displacement, and correlations with vertical effective stress and SPT profile, a revised design methodology was proposed. A 25% enhancement on commonly assumed ultimate shaft friction in Chalk was adopted. In addition a significant reduction in the Factor of Safety on end-bearing capacity generally used was also implemented. The revised design resulted in a significant cost and time saving on the piling operation with the pile length reduced by up to 6m (approx. 20%) for the river piers.

Jan 1, 2002

By Ramdane Bahar

The new Algiers airport building is a reinforced concrete building of more than 80 thousand square meters of floor slabs. It is located at Dar-EI-Beida, near the old passenger terminal, about 20 km east of Algiers. The project is designed to receive about six millions passengers annually and leaves the possibility of future extension. Due to the presence of a top layer of compressible soil and great concentrated loads transmitted to the foundations, the building is to be founded on 1730 bored piles of 1.2 meter diameter varying in length between 14 and 28 m. Construction work started in 1986 and was interrupted in 1996 due to financial difficulties when the structure was almost complete. The structure was left unattended for more than three years without any weatherproofing and in 1999 a new firm was appointed to complete the work and hence an evaluation of the existing structure was necessary. This paper describes and discusses the foundation design, construction supervision, site quality control and assessment by the parallel seismic method of the deep foundations built in cohesive soils. The variation in soil conditions and identified geotechnical and hydrogeological problems associated with the development of the area, required a thorough knowledge of the soil conditions. A variety of tests, involving more than 200 locations, were carried out. The ground investigation, pile tests as well as different problems encountered during piles construction, are presented.

Jan 1, 2002

By Frank Borda

Two recent projects were completed in Ontario, Canada for major hospital additions that involved excavation support of heritage masonry structures. Conventional continuous caisson wall schemes were replaced, with significant cost savings, by tied back shotcrete systems. Using a combination of conventional design and FLAC analysis, excavation support was designed to permit excavation in competent to weak soils that limited horizontal movements of the existing structures to between 3 and 8 mm. The use of vertical wall elements (micropiles) integral to the shotcrete wall to support both the vertical wall loads and the face of the excavation was deemed to significantly reduce lateral and vertical wall movements. FLAC analysis was used successfully to predict wall movements and optimize design. The shotcrete method proved to be flexible and adaptable to design changes during the project. This permitted convenient accommodation of changes to the building geometry after excavation support had commenced. In addition the method accommodated staged demolition and excavation support of portions of the existing structure at low cost, conveniently and without delays.

Jan 1, 2004

By Kyle A. Kershaw

The City of Grand Forks, North Dakota obtains drinking water from both the Red River and Red Lake River through a system of raw water intakes, shallow pipelines, and pump stations. However, during flood events, the City often loses access to the system, as evidenced during the record flood event in 1997. As a result, the City decided to construct a new gravity raw water intake system, including a pump station at the base of a 65-foot-deep, 60-foot-diameter caisson, behind a new levee system. Because of high design flood elevations and connectivity of river head to underlying soils, uplift resistance was required for the caisson. A total of 37, 2-foot-diameter, augered cast-in-place (ACIP) piles were chosen to provide uplift resistance. Because of the difficulties associated with installation of piles within the confined space of the constructed caisson and basal stability concerns, installation was completed from the existing ground surface to a depth of 120 feet. Several design and construction issues arose, including squeezing ground during pile installation, placement of long reinforcing bars, and installation of a dual material pile. A dual material pile was required to ensure that the ACIP pile below the base of the caisson was structurally sound and the pile above the base of the caisson could be easily excavated during sinking of the caisson. This paper discusses the solutions to each of these issues, as well as construction sequencing, load testing and integrity testing of the ACIP piles, and the successful completion of the project.

Jan 1, 2003

By Piotr D. Moncarz

As major urban areas begin to run out of "good-terrain" for their expansion, they begin to claim high water-table areas within or adjacent to water fronts or swamps. Similarly, major infrastructure projects encroach on or cross high organic content areas. The associated major structures often require deep foundations located in soils investigated through core samples removed at a discrete number of locations. The investigation is nearly always preoccupied with soil mechanical properties, sometimes with soil non-organic chemistry for concrete and metal corrosion, seldom, if ever, for organic-chemistry and bio-conditions as related to concrete longevity. Not surprisingly so, bio-corrosion of concrete is one of the least understood phenomena by practicing civil engineers. This paper shows how low-iron, organic-rich sediments may trigger sulfate degradation of concrete, even when standard pre-construction chemical analyses indicate only a moderate sulfate level. The discussion is illustrated with a case of a pile foundation in the United States driven into marine channel sediments and sediment-derived fill material. The concrete piles lost their structural integrity due to secondary ettringite formation and depletion of iron in the cement paste. Disintegration of concrete occurred only where it contacted superficial marine sediments and sediment-derived fill material. Concrete in direct contact with seawater or native sand and silt materials appeared to be sound. Sediments in contact with the degraded concrete were highly anoxic and had a history of sewage contamination, contained low concentrations of total iron (<2%), Fe(III) (<0.3%) and moderate levels of sulfate (1500ppm), and exhibited high bacterial activity. This environment resulted in the microbial dissolution of Fe(lll)-rich ferrite in hardened cement paste. Iron depletion in the cement paste had made the concrete vulnerable to degradation by sulfate, even at moderate levels of sulfate concentrations in the sediments.

Jan 1, 2002

"Every year during the Transportation Research Board (TRB) Annual Meeting in Washington D.C., the Federal Highway Administration (FHWA) National Geotechnical Team (NGT) takes time to talk about what we are doing in research, training development and policy support. At times, I have jokingly referred to it as the State of the Program Address, but we do see it as an important opportunity to update our transportation partners on priorities and needs for the program.This update is really a snapshot of the program during the previous year, with a look at projects that are currently active. Activities undertaken by the NGT are funded from multiyear roadmaps maintained by the FHWA program and research offices, and reflect trends and opportunities affecting and influencing transportation geotechnics now and in the future. The roadmaps identify activities in research, development, guidance, technology transfer and training that will be accomplished by the NGT through and beyond FY 2020 in eight broadly-defined focus areas: • Extreme events, geohazards and sustainable geotechnics• Performance management• Reliability-based design and construction• Advanced geotechnical modeling• Alternative delivery methods• Design and construction optimization• Site characterization• Quality assuranceThe process to identify focus areas and to develop activities that will be addressed by the NGT is guided and informed through input from the FHWA NGT members, and considers feedback and input from State Departments of Transportation (DOTs), FHWA Division offices, industry and academia. This process is revisited annually to review not only the activities that are currently funded, or will be funded, but also to review the relevance of the focus areas with respect to the future needs of the FHWA, State DOTs and the transportation community.In 2016, the NGT was successful in delivering several products that will advance the state of the practice and that better support policy. Products developed included research reports, design and construction guidance, and training courses. In 2017, the research and program offices will continue to work on projects that fit within our prioritized plan and that positively impact the geotechnical community as a whole. A listing of recently completed and currently active projects is provided below."

Jan 1, 2017

By G. L. Sivakumar Babu, P. Chaithra

"Raft foundations which are used against differential settlements and for carrying heavy loads can still be subjected to excessive settlements even if it is safe against bearing capacity consideration. Providing additional piles under the raft can reduce such settlements to acceptable values. In addition to settlements, the piles also relieve the raft a part of the total load and thus the bearing capacity of the Combined piled raft foundation (CPRF) is improved. Parametric study of response of piled raft foundation has been conducted and the results have been presented. The study is conducted using finite element based software, PLAXIS 2D. The main objective of the paper is to evaluate the parameters that affect the performance of piled raft for an economical and effective design. It has been shown that piled rafts are an economical solution in foundation design compared to raft foundation, for the soil conditions considered in the paper.1. INTRODUCTIONThe aim during the design and construction process of high-rise building foundations in urban areas is to ensure the lifelong safety and serviceability of the new and existing buildings in the neighborhood. In order to realize this aim in a cost-optimized manner, the combined pile raft foundation (CPRF) was developed (Katzenbach et al., 2005). For the foundation of high rise buildings with good subsoil, the simplest structure considered is a raft. But when the subsoil near the ground surface has low load-bearing capacity, high-rise structures are often rested on piled foundations.A piled raft and pile group serves similar purposes, but there are essential differences between them. A pile group is a set of piles that have a pile cap. The piles would be designed to share the pile load at ultimate state. The pile cap would be designed to link the piles together but the contribution of the pile cap to bearing capacity will not be included in the design. On the other hand, a piled raft is a foundation, wherein piles are provided along with the raft so that the total load acting is shared partly by the raft and partly by piles, rather than being dominated by the piles (as in a pile group). Piled raft foundations utilize pile support for control of settlements with piles providing most of the stiffness at serviceability loads, and the raft element providing additional capacity at ultimate loading (Poulos, et al., 2011). Therefore, piles are included in a foundation for two main design purposes: to provide adequate bearing capacity and to bring down the settlements to an acceptable level."

Jan 1, 2015

By Mitsuhiro Shibazaki

Generally, water-soluble polymers are effective in convergence of water jet ejected from a nozzle as they add viscosity to water. However, excessive additional polymers (added to keep water viscous) could increase friction on the contrary. Therefore, we have totally modified the jetting system from every possible aspect, such as the shape and upstream conditions of a nozzle in order to keep the flow spread to the minimum as stated in my presentation.

Feb 10, 2003

By George Burke

Of the three projects, particularly the extensive Nimitz II (downtown) project, a single system, which was part of the operation, was used to control the spoil. Spoil control was continuous with the work since a vacuum truck and crew was used to suck up the spoils as they came out of the borehole. So, the whole job was kept clean both during operations and at the end of the shifts. On the Sand Island project, a double system was used. Larger spoil quantities were contained within the shaft limits during the work and the cleanup or disposal of the spoils was performed during excavation.

Feb 10, 2003