kcICON Moving Forward – Test Shaft Installation

By Robert Thompson, on June 17th, 2008

I have been slow in posting on the progress of our part in the kcICON project (see here for background and here for latest project images by MoDOT). The exploratory drilling went very well with a short pause due to ice in the river in late January. The crews from Terracon did an outstanding job getting the borings completed, overcoming the occasional problems with drilling tools deciding they did not want to come out of the hole.

Design work by Parsons on the main bridge proceeded (and is still ongoing) through the rest of winter and into the spring. In late April, PCC installed the test shaft in the middle of the pylon foundation with a 6-foot diameter rock socket 20 feet long. The shaft was tested using a group of 3 O-cells placed near the bottom of the shaft. The test yielded excellent results in both side shear and end bearing in the shale socket. Look for us to include the results in a future technical paper or journal article.

Design is continuing with the pylon shafts anticipated to be started in early July. The abutments and approach piers are schedule to be started later this summer or early fall.

The slide show embedded below has some photos of the exploratory drilling and the test shaft installation. Enjoy!

Technorati : Bridge Foundations, Deep Foundations, Drilled Shafts, Foundation Construction, Foundations, Geotechnical Engineering, Load Test, Test Shaft