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By Giovanni A. Bonita, Asher H. Peltz, Sean D. Johnson

This paper examines a complex earthwork project in the Washington DC metro area that had project delivery directly impacted by questionable instrumentation monitoring data. The case study summarizes the impacts to the project caused by questionable instrumentation data and reveals how the authors were able to utilize data to extract meaningful insights. The case study also demonstrates how clear data presentation became a key factor in maintaining stakeholder trust and facilitated progress of the project schedule. The case study highlights key points to collecting high quality instrumentation data, approaches to assess and improve value of the data collected, and techniques to reduce and interpret questionable data.

By Reinaldo J. Villa, Joshua C. Adams

The I-395/SR-836/I-95 reconstruction project is an $818-million design-build construction effort that includes construction of viaduct, segmental and signature bridges in Miami leading into Miami Beach in Florida. Based on the load testing performed during the design phase, the design-build team determined that conventional driven pile and drilled shaft foundations were not feasible for support of segmental and signature bridges. Due to the weak limestone formation and successful use of auger cast-in-place (ACIP) piles in the Downtown Miami area on commercial developments, ACIP piles were selected as a foundation system to support bridges. This is the first time in history where the bridges will be supported by ACIP pile foundations in an interstate highway in the State of Florida. The design build-team worked closely with the Florida Department of Transportation to develop requirements for the load test program. The paper will provide an overview of the geotechnical data collected, results of dynamic/bi-directional load testing performed on test piles, data collected, installation of piles, and lessons learned. The load test program included a total of fifteen test piles with dynamic, bi-directional, and lateral load testing on 30 and 36-inch diameter ACIP piles and instrumented with thermal integrity profiling wires.

Sep 8, 2021

By Esam Abraham

A 13.6 mile portion of the 500 kV Tehachapi Renewable Transmission Project crosses the mountains of the Angeles National Forest. Access and environmental constraints precluded road development for most transmission tower foundations, tower erection and conductor stringing operations. Because of the access constraints, helicopter-supported micropile foundation construction was used for this steep and environmentally sensitive portion of the project. The general methodologies incorporated on the project represent innovative implementations of micropile design criteria, preconstruction micropile installation and verification testing, on-site geotechnical characterization, micropile and pile cap installation, and proof load testing. Challenges in constructing the 224 foundations for 56 transmission towers provide lessons learned related to transmission lattice steel tower specific design constraints, construction challenges (environmental and geotechnical), and construction schedule.

Jan 1, 2010

By Christian Hoyme, Jochen Maurer, Hans Regler

Up to today, it has been very difficult to obtain qualitative and quantitative information about the status and production process of a construction site. It is becoming more and more important to be able to analyze this process so as to notice bottlenecks and interruptions on the site early on. The high costs of each shift in special foundation industry mean that making the wrong decision and/or interruptions can put the financial result at risk. Previously, keeping reliable data meant manual process documentation. This was done either by an additional staff member (incurring high additional costs for training, education, etc.) or by the equipment operators. The latter is critical, because they have to initiate every process step change, leaving no time to log data separately. Studies have shown that there are considerable deviations from the actual process steps. In this paper, a seamless, automated method will be introduced to analyze the construction process. This method recognizes each process step from the equipment data. The main purpose of the data recorded by the piling rig is the need of quality reports and now basis for the presented analysis. Here, a method was successfully transferred from theoretical computer science (compiler construction field) to find application for process recognition. Because the execution of works in special foundation construction can always be defined sequentially and therefore also practiced sequentially, recognition can occur step-by-step. Our method always recognizes the next step, so it does not have to monitor as much data at the same time. Individual trigger points are easier to define. Unlike solutions that are based on a global approach and allocate suitable process steps to data patterns, thereby also creating gaps, the presented method is always seamless. Furthermore, this method can be applied regardless of time or location provided that the necessary machine data is available, which is normally the case with production data logging. This means that construction sites even from the past can also be analyzed and the results used for comparisons. The first results from the analysis of a complete continuous flight augering (CFA piles) installation process of a construction site will be presented.

Sep 8, 2021

By Damien Enright, Franz-Werner Gerressen

CFA/ACIP pile is the most used single pass drilling method for deep foundation installations. It is constructed by rotating and driving a Continuous Flight Auger (CFA) into the ground at a controlled speed to the specified pile depth. Concrete is then pumped under continuous positive pressure through the hollow stem of the auger to fill the borehole as the auger is withdrawn. CFA/ACIP piles are preferred due to their high daily production capacity when used in suitable soil conditions. CFA/ACIP piles have been installed in the United States for decades and the industry has seen a huge development in equipment, installation process, monitoring and more. Nowadays, CFA/ACIP piles are installed using fully computer monitored drill rigs rather than a bulky crane and lead setup. Because of the torque and crowd offered by these rigs, piles can be installed to depths of more than 100 feet and diameters up to 48 inches. New age crane-based equipment with leader systems are than welcome to substitute old fashioned bulky cranes These new age crane-based systems combine the benefits of sufficient hydraulic power, fully equipped software, etc. with the additional benefits that they can do single pass drilling without extension systems, even when drill depths of more than 100 feet are required. The paper will explain the construction process and will discuss some jobsite references and experiences made using the new age crane-based equipment.

Oct 1, 2022

By Serge Borel

An efficient design method is proposed for "piled-footing" and "piled-raft" foundation under lateral loads. It combines the methods used for the displacement design of shallow and deep foundations and takes into account the interactions between the piles and the cap or raft. This method has been applied to previous full-scale tests carried out in the United States. Two groups of six instrumented driven piles were laterally loaded several times: first with the concrete pile cap in direct contact with the soil, and then, after a thin layer of soil had been removed beneath the cap. The proposed method models well the real behavior of piled-raft foundations. It highlights the positive effect of the cap in contact with the soil, which reduces significantly the displacements and the maximum pile bending moments. These are divided by two for the analyzed case histories.

Jan 1, 2002

By Franz-Werner Gerressen

As alternative energy industries pick up speed internationally, and as government regulation and restriction limit the use of impact hammers due to environmental limitation from construction induced noise during pile driving operations, unconventional solutions for more complex offshore foundation installations have become a necessity. Manufacturers and equipment suppliers race to develop alternative techniques to accommodate for offshore foundation construction in various soil conditions and at greater water depth. The FLYDRILL, and the Seabed-Drill BSD are two innovative systems for the installation of offshore monopiles with reduced environmental impact

By Alison Savage, Michael Terry

"For decades, the International Market Place (IMP) has been an icon in the heart of Waikiki in Honolulu, Hawaii. It was famous for Duke Kahanamoku’s restaurant where people flocked to hear Don Ho sing in the ’60s and ’70s. Later, it was a bustling, open-air hub of small vendors who peddled everything from Hawaiian souvenirs and jewelry to food court meals and farmer’s market produce. Small buildings and shacks that housed the businesses were located on a curved tract of land — just one block off the beach — that stretches from Kalakaua Avenue to Kuhio Avenue. The entrance to the complex is dominated by a huge, old (circa 1850) Banyan tree. This tract is owned by the Queen Emma Land Company. Queen Emma was a Hawaiian Queen from the 1800s. Revenue from the land has supported the Queen’s Medical Center in Honolulu for decades.The reimagined IMP is owned by Taubman Centers, of Bloomfield Hills, Mich., and CoastWood Capital Group of San Francisco, Calif. The IMP will offer a distinctive collection of upscale fashion and lifestyle retailers, including Hawaii’s only Saks Fifth Avenue store, as well as ten sit-down restaurants, including concepts by award-winning chefs Michael Mina and Roy Yamaguchi. The mall features two large open-air courts, the first of which has the huge Banyan tree as its entryway centerpiece. The second open-air court, called Queen’s Court, includes a stage and mature monkeypod trees and a few palm trees. Foundation SelectionAfter a geotechnical exploration that was directed by SME, Plymouth, Mich., and performed by Geolabs, Honolulu, it was discovered that the historical site had hidden and challenging foundation conditions. The subsurface conditions included a very deep but now in-filled ancient river valley containing more than 180 ft (54.9 m) of lagoonal deposits consisting of normally consolidated plastic clayey silts and silty clays with blow counts mainly varying in N-value from 1 to 6. The silt was underlain by several soft coralline layers, some overconsolidated clays and various basalt layers. The static groundwater level on the site was at a depth of about 5 ft (1.5 m), closely matching sea level.Although driven piles had previously been used as the preferred deep foundation support for adjacent structures, this area of town is now fully developed and local noise ordinances preclude their use. Augercast piles were initially considered, but when the general contractor dck/FWF, Pittsburgh, Pa., asked for bids for the augercast piles, several foundation contractors offered alternate systems. The practical installation depth of augercast piles was limited and due to the depth of the in-filled alluvial valley, this system could likely have left soft silt below the tips of the piles over much of the site."

Jan 1, 2016

By Sameh M. Khella

This paper discusses the application of deep CFA piles for the foundation of structures in different ground stratifications with a focus on the application in Queensland region. Design, construction techniques and quality measures implemented during these procedures are described. Testing methods and verification of capacity, integrity and performance of these piles are also demonstrated. Case studies for this application are presented with an appreciation of this solution within the provided project conditions of each case. Examples of successes and challenges encountered over the course of application of deep CFA in Queensland are mentioned. Limitations of the technique and less favourable situations for its implementation are also highlighted.

Nov 1, 2022

By Brian Wilson, John Scholte, Megan Atkinson

"In November 2004, the residents of the City of Nanaimo, B.C., Canada voted to approve a new conference centre as the centrepiece of a proposed revitalization project for the city’s historic downtown core. The proposal goal was to replace a cluster of derelict buildings with a dynamic and modern complex that would connect existing city facilities to a new conference facility, the Vancouver Island Conference Centre (VICC). The conference centre is expected to create 150 full-time jobs, attract visitors/ delegates from across North America and generate new economic opportunities for local businesses.However, the proposed site posed a number of geotechnical and geoenvironmental challenges. As is often the case with coastal cities, historic growth of the Nanaimo downtown and harbour area was achieved through reclamation of former waterfront areas and inlets. These areas were often infilled with random fills and even wastes, leaving a legacy of variable density heterogeneous fills contaminated with a variety of pollutants. Preliminary assessment of the site indicated a high likelihood of a requirement for deep foundations, a high risk of liquefaction in the event of an earthquake and the presence of both soil and groundwater contamination. Construction would be further complicated by the requirement for two levels of basement parking and the proximity of adjacent buildings and major roadways to the work area.With a limited budget (fixed by the referendum) and timeframe, the city needed a cost-effective solution to proceed with construction. A number of options were considered, but an innovative design using leading-edge Cutter Soil Mixer (CSM) technology best met the geotechnical and budgetary requirements of the site. The CSM approach also addressed the environmental concerns of contaminated soils and groundwater. Golder Associates Innovative Applications (GAIA) Inc., in association with the designers of their parent company Golder Associates Ltd. (Golder), proposed the CSM technology — at the time the first North American application."

Jan 1, 2008

By Leonhard Weixler, Jean Wehbe, Gordian Ulrich, Franz-Werner Gerressen

"As alternative energy industries pick up speed internationally, and as government regulation and restriction limit the use of impact hammers due to environmental limitation from construction induced noise during pile driving operations, unconventional solutions for more complex offshore foundation installations have become a necessity. Manufacturers and equipment suppliers race to develop alternative techniques to accommodate for offshore foundation construction in various soil conditions and at greater water depth. The FLYDRILL, and the Seabed-Drill BSD are two innovative systems for the installation of offshore monopiles with reduced environmental impact.INTRODUCTIONThe FLYDRILL and the Seabed-Drill were born from techniques in the design and construction experiences gained from land based foundation drilling systems over the past 25 years. As the alternative energy industry ventures into uncharted territory of deeper water for offshore wind farms, fast current regions for tidal energy, and increasingly challenging soil conditions and project complexity, the advancement and development of new innovative equipment system and drilling techniques have become a necessity.The systems described herein show the development of the so called “FLY-Drill” system, and the all new “Seabed-Drilling” equipment applied at the first ever made job using a seabed drilling rig.FLY DRILLThe FLY DRILL method is a completely new concept for bored piling. The drilling unit with rotary head, Kelly bar, and drilling tool is suspended by the hoist rope of the base carrier crane. The hydraulic power for the drill unit is provided from the base crane.The drill head is fixed on the casing with a hydraulically operated clamping system during the drilling operation. When emptying the drilling tool, the clamp cylinders are opened and the complete unit is swung sideways."

Jan 1, 2017

By Louay Owaidat, Daniel Jabbour, Allan Frappier, Jose Gomez, Mark Stanley, Tino Maestas

The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers (USACE) is implementing a levee strengthening program along the Sacramento River East Levee (SREL) designed to correct 11 miles of deficient levees as identified by recent hydraulic and geotechnical investigations. The first project, the subject of this paper, completed in 2020 resulted in approximately 3.0 miles of improvements to the California Central Valley Flood Protection system. The project area lies along the east bank of the Sacramento River in Sacramento. The program consists of constructing cutoff walls through existing levee embankments to remediate levee through seepage and under-seepage. Key challenges included designing and constructing measures to remediate a 100-year-old legacy levee system, the presence of both industrial and residential properties immediately adjacent to the landside of the levee creating severe space and access limitations, and performing this work during the 2020 statewide mandate to shelter-in-place due to the COVID-19 pandemic. The project team of contractors, USACE, state and local agencies, and engineering firms partnered to bring this project to successful completion within budget and on schedule expending more than 60,000 man-hours with no lost time accidents. With the issuance of future planned contracts, the program will significantly reduce flood risk to the City of Sacramento.

Sep 8, 2021

By Dan Brown

Improvements in construction equipment and techniques in recent years have made possible the use of drilled shaft foundations in diameters and lengths not previously considered practical or feasible. Many highway bridge and other structures are now routinely founded on drilled shafts which -are 8 to 12 feet in diameter and extending over 200 feet in depth below grade. There are unique challenges associated with constructing such large and deep cast-In-place foundations and engineers should be aware of the special needs associated with site investigation, construction specifications, material requirements, and quality assurance. This paper outlines a number of special considerations for these foundations, along with strategies that may be employed to improve the reliability and quality of large drilled shaft foundations.

May 11, 2007

By Clifford Taylor, Alexander Zöhrer

"The execution of deep basement excavations under narrow conditions is one of the most challenging tasks in geotechnics. The vicinity of neighbouring buildings, roads, and underground structures such as sewers or power lines, quite often prohibits the application of standard solutions. In addition, legal considerations in the use of adjacent properties is becoming increasingly difficult. This paper will present some innovative approaches to overcome the above-mentioned challenges based on several case studies from central Europe. For every project the design approach as well as the techniques used for execution will be explained, detailing both the advantages and the limitations of the applications. One case study shows a deep basement excavation (approx. 17m) in the centre of Prague, Czech Republic. This project featured many challenging boundary conditions (narrow construction area, high ground water table, jet grouting column embedment into bedrock, constraints regarding use of ground anchors due to property rights, etc). The realisation of the complex design is described and illustrated in detail. Other case studies will show the combined application of bored piles with jet grouting and also explain the design of vertical prestressed anchors for retaining walls.INTRODUCTIONThe development of urban areas has always presented challenges, from access for equipment and materials to the rectification of existing foundations in unknown condition. Compounding these is the increasingly stringent requirements to retain, maintain and reduce impact on culturally and historically significant structures. As available space is becoming more limited, optimisation of real estate has resulted in buildings getting higher and their basements deeper below ground. Two or more basement levels are quite common, with typical excavation depths ranging from 5 to more than 10m. Additionally, we are faced with neighbouring buildings that are equally high, deep and massive. These buildings directly adjacent the retaining structure require underpinning to limit settlement, and in cases where they are within just a few meters, this building mass generates additional earth pressure for the retaining wall to support, resulting in complex loading cases.This paper highlights several common challenges and explores the measures implemented to overcome them. The challenges and examples of either design based solutions or practical applications will focus on the following topics – the limitations of conventional geotechnical construction methods, overcoming challenging geology and the requirement for watertight basement constructions."

Jan 1, 1900

By David Pierce

The Port of Seattle, one of the largest on the west coast of North America, made a strong statement regarding their support for reusing existing structures when a decision was made to rehabilitate Pier 69, on Seattle's downtown waterfront, for their new headquarters. Because of its age and location, the pier provided an unusual challenge to the Port and its consultants. The Port hired Peratrovich, Nottingham, and Drage Inc. to design the seismic strengthening of the pier itself. To remedy the lack of seismic resistance in the 70-year-old pier, PN&D designed a new steel-pipe-pile supported concrete apron next to it. The structure relied on a development by PN&D, the "spin-fin pile", to achieve the tension capacities required of the batter piles. The construction of this apron was completed in October of 1991. Another team of consultants performed the superstructure renovation design, which is now under construction.

Jan 1, 1992

By Michael Arnold

"BAUER Foundation Corp. was one of three contractors awarded with the installation of a cut-off wall at the Herbert Hoover Dike Rehabilitation project. The cut-off wall was constructed up to 84 feet deep and 25 inches thick. It extended from the crest through the middle of the existing dike into the underlying peat, sand, and rock layers. BAUER used the cement deep soil mixing method of Cutter Soil Mixing (CSM) to install the wall. Soil mixing was facilitated by first removing the peat layer in the wall alignment using Kelly drilling and replacing it with suitable backfill, resulting in a secant pile wall arrangement of replacement columns. BAUER successfully finished four task orders with a total length of just over 10 miles. Up to six rigs of the types BAUER BG 28, BAUER BG 40 and RTG RG 25 were concurrently used to perform the replacement columns and the cut-off wall installation.The paper introduces the project, the geotechnical site conditions, and the requirements specified by USACE. It focuses on the specific adaptation of the CSM method to the site conditions and on the equipment used. Strength and permeability results obtained from an extensive testing program are presented. The impact of the curing conditions on lab and in-situ test results is studied, and test results are related to soil conditions.PROJECTThe Herbert Hoover Dike is a 143-mile-long dike encircling Lake Okeechobee in south central Florida. When it was constructed in the 1930s and 1960s, the purpose of Herbert Hoover Dike was flood protection from hurricanes. However, during the 1970s a higher lake level was maintained permanently to provide local agriculture with water. Later, damage became apparent during two nearly back-to-back high water events in the 1990s, when numerous sink holes, seeps, pipes, and boils were observed (Fig. 1). In 2000, the Congress approved USACE to propose rehabilitation measures. The installation of a cut-off wall into the existing dike was chosen during the initial design process as the preferred measure to improve the safety of the dike (Davis et al. 2009).The first section of the dike to be rehabilitated was Reach 1 located along the southeast side of the lake between the towns of Port Mayaca and Belle Glade. An indefinite delivery indefinite quantity (IDIQ) multiple award task order contract (MATOC) was issued for this 22.4-mile-long stretch by USACE in 2007. BAUER Foundation Corp. (BAUER) was one of the three contractors that succeeded in the qualification process. Each of the three successful contractors had their own novel construction techniques. In the years 2008 to 2012 BAUER executed four task orders totaling over 10.0 lineal miles of cut-off wall with 3.3 million square feet of design surface area."

Jan 1, 2015

By Gilbert R. Tallard

"Pouring deep foundations by the tremie pipe method is nowadays such a common process that it has becomes an unspecified practice. Means and methods are almost entirely at the contactor’s discretion. A variety of practices are permitted and seldom associated with the discovery of abnormalities and areas of random defects in concrete. This writer wishes to call the attention of stakeholders to the initiation details of the tremie pour operation.KEYWORDSINTRODUCTIONThe advent of slurry as a means of shoring an excavation of relatively small cross section but of possibly great depth has become part of state of the art in foundations construction, with the substitution of said slurry by concrete to provide the structural end product element through the use of tremie pipes. In appearance, there is nothing more simple than pouring concrete into a tremie pipe through a hopper after the basic work has been done i.e. the excavation or drilling, the cleaning of the slurry, the placement of the reinforcing cage, then the tremie concrete pour is almost a reward for a successful achievement. Force of habit has removed the awareness on the process fundamentals for initiating the pour; a variety of practices used call for a review and a reassessment as a means of reducing construction defects that may result from flawed practices, and and especially we are pouring deeper holes. This writer intends to address this issue focusing both on the drilled shaft and the diaphragm wall industries.TREMIE PIPES AND HOPPERSA tremie pipe diameter needs to be sufficiently large to allow the rapid descent of concrete with a minimum of friction loss and avoiding possible bridging in relation to aggregate size. Impervious joints between pipe sections are essential to prevent slurry “raining” over the concrete which can cause concrete segregation pockets and possibly plug the pipe with damaging consequences. That tremie pipes be long enough to reach the bottom may be self-evident but poorly written specifications can be erratic on that subject and seldom specific in terms of inches. A standard pipe of 10 inches is well accepted throughout the foundations industry; double O rings and spline joints are common and function well if properly maintained. However the practice to cover the joint with the ineffable duct tape indicates that all is not always well with this detail. Also, spline cables may shear in case of very long tremie pipes causing the separation of the tremie pipe requiring a restart in midstream with another probable source of inter mixing of concrete and slurry with subsequent defects."

Jan 1, 2017

By Marcus Daubner

This paper explains how BAUER Spezialtiefbau GmbH uses digital methods on projects - starting from work preparation to completion of works. More precisely, the advantages of BIM-based planning during work preparation and the automated and structured data management - both machine production data and the manually recorded quality-relevant reports - during execution phase are displayed. In this context, the benefit of the digital twin to optimize processes, to reduce defect costs, for a more effective reporting sys-tem, and the further usage of as-built information in the BIM or GIS process is described.

Sep 1, 2022

"The Morris Island Lighthouse (MIL) is located between the jetties leading to the Charleston Harbor and Folly Beach, S.C. The present structure is the third lighthouse to occupy this location. The first navigational aid was erected in 1673, and consisted of a raised pan filled with pitch, which was set afire at night to guide early ships. The next structure was built in 1767, and constituted the first real lighthouse, standing 42 ft (12.8 m) in height. In 1838, a second lighthouse was built on the site, and it measured 102 ft (31 m) in height and featured a revolving light. This structure lasted until 1862 when Confederate troops, during the Civil War, destroyed it to deny its use to Union troops.Navigators steered these waters without a lighthouse for nearly a decade until 1876, when the current structure was built under the direction of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers (USACE). In 1886, the Charleston area suffered a M7.6 earthquake. Significant damage was caused throughout much of the area, including a slight “list” of the lighthouse to the northeast. As a result, the cast of the beacon was reduced from 18 mi (29 km) to about 6 mi (9.7 km), causing much distress to navigators until the beacon platform was releveled and remains at this list to the present day.Conditions for ConcernThe current lighthouse was originally constructed about 1,200 ft (366 m) from the shoreline. Over the years, USACE has undertaken several programs to meet the increased shipping and navigation demands in the Charleston Harbor. Around the turn of the last century, two jetties were constructed, which drastically changed the approach direction for ships entering the harbor. In subsequent years, the harbor began to experience accelerated siltation."

Jan 1, 2017

By Raymond Henn

Yes we have also used some however, again because of the nature of the maintenance window where we have that two hour (at best) window every night and due to the numerous other crews that are wanting to get in to do the other types of maintenance activities, we don't know if we are going to be getting into that same area from one night to the next. So even with the dormancy additives that one can add to cementitious grouts (that are good up to 72 hours) we don't know if we are going to get back in to the same locations from one week to the next. That's why I use the term "the forgiving nature of the acrylamide". It allows us to ream out the hole allowing us to use the exact same hole without having to re-drill a new hole. The program started in 1997 and we have a budget between labor/materials and equipment of 4.5 million dollars on a year to year basis. For the next few years that is going to come down drastically because the program is going to be more of an ongoing maintenance program. The program started in 1997 and we have a budget between labor/materials and equipment of 4.5 million dollars on a year to year basis. For the next few years that is going to come down drastically because the program is going to be more of an ongoing maintenance program. Up to the end of 2001 we were just over 1.7 million liters of between AV100 and AV118 grout. Of that, approximately just under 200,000 was AV100 and the remaining balance was AV118.

Feb 10, 2003