Category Archives: Foundation Design

Two New Technical Manuals From DFI

The Deep Foundations Institute (DFI) has announced the publication of two new deep foundation reference manuals.   Excerpts from the announcement for both manuals are below.  Both manuals are available for order using this form or on-line at this link.

Guideline for Interpretation of Nondestructive Integrity Testing of Augered Cast-in-Place and Drilled Displacement Piles
DFI Augered Cast-In-Place Pile Committee (2011-2012) Chaired by Michael Moran
Tracy Brettmann, Principal Author; Bernard Hertlein, Matthew Meyer, Bria Whitmire, Co-Authors

(Image from DFI)

This guideline provides practical guidance for the interpretation of nondestructive testing (NDT) of the integrity of augered cast-in-place (ACIP) and drilled displacement (DD) piles.  …  This guideline supplements DFI’s two primary publications on ACIP piles: Augered Cast-in-Place Pile Manual (2003) and the Inspector’s Guide for Augered Cast-in-Place Piles (2010). This guideline was developed to provide 1) more detailed explanations of the various test methods available, 2) guidance on interpretation of the results, and 3) some typical examples of the data and interpretation.

Seismic and Lateral Load Design and Testing Guidelines
DFI Seismic and Lateral Loads Committee (2011-2012)
Chaired by Mark Petersen and Zia Zafir (2003-2009)
Robert Kruger, Guideline Editor

 

(DBA Photo)

This guidance document is intended to assist geotechnical engineers, pile designers, and contractors in analysis, design, and testing of piles and drilled shafts for lateral loads. … … This document discusses the background of different analytical and testing procedures and presents the recommended methods for analysis, design and testing of piles for lateral loads.

Busy Fall Speaking Schedule for DBA

The months of September and October will be busy for several DBA team members speaking at a variety of conferences and events. Dan Brown and John Turner will be speaking at the ADSC/DFI Drilled Shaft Seminar and Field Day in Denver September 12 and 13. Dan will be giving the 4th Annual Osterberg Memorial Lecture at the DFI Educational Trust dinner being held on the evening of the 12th. Dan and John will be speaking mostly on construction issues during the seminar.   

 

MWGC logoLater in the month, Dan and Robert Thompson are both featured at the 2012 Midwest Geotechnical Conference hosted by Ohio DOT in Columbus, Ohio. Dan will be speaking on base grouted shafts while Robert will give his presentation on the ADSC SE Chapter rock socket load test research program.     

 

STGEC 2012In October, Dan and Robert appear together again at the 2012 Southeastern Transportation Geotechnical Engineering Conference (STGEC) in Richmond, Virginia. This will be the 43rd installment of this conference, hosted this year by the Virginia DOT. Dan will speak on design-build construction issues for deep foundations, while Robert will again present the load test research project. Dan will also speak at the 26th Central Pennsylvania Geotechnical Conference in Hershey, Pennsylvania in October, and Robert will speak at the ADSC Carolinas Chapter meeting in Greenville, NC.

New Pictures of Hastings Bridge Added to Our Picasa Web Album

Some new pictures of the Hastings bridge project in Hastings, Minnesota have been added to our Picasa Web Album: Hastings Bridge Construction.  The  pictures were taken by myself, David Graham, who has been in the area working on a load test program for a new bridge crossing the St. Croix River near Stillwater, Minnesota, and Griff Wigley, our blog coach who lives nearby in Northfield, Minnesota.  The pictures show some of the recently poured deck sections, the completed piers, and the main span arch construction.  Once completed, the main span arch will be moved onto barges, floated downstream, and lifted into place in one piece.  We have chronicled this interesting and successful project in several previous blog posts that can be found here.

TRB Report: Scour at Bridge Foundation on Rock

TRB has released a new synthesis report covering scour of bridge foundations.  Since this is an issue we are involved in on a lot of our big bridge projects, I felt it appropriate to share and help spread the word (Disclosure:  I have not read the report yet – but plan to soon).  ON large bridge projects we are often on the same team as Ayres Associates, Inc. , the firm of one of the three authors, Paul E. Clopper.

I found out about it from our friend Randy Post of Geoprac.net, so hat tip (h/t) to Randy:

TRB’s National Cooperative Highway Research Program (NCHRP) Report 717: Scour at Bridge Foundations on Rock presents a methodology for estimating the time rate of scour and the design scour depth for a bridge founded on rock. The report also includes design and construction guidelines for application of the methodology.

Check out Randy’s site – he does a great job keeping up with all sorts of things related to geo-engineering.

Go here to get the report (download PDF or purchase printed copy)

Tim Siegel paper in Fellenius GSP

Our own Tim Siegel, P.E., G.E., D.GE. was one of a handful of people invited to submit papers for the recently published Geotechnical Special Publication (GSP) No. 227: Full-Scale Testing and Foundation Design (Honoring Bengt H. Fellenius).  Tim’s paper is on testing of augered cast-in-place piles.  Four piles were installed with varying auger rotations and then load tested in axial compression to evaluate the effect auger rotation on the axial behavior of the piles.

Just follow the link below to get the paper.  You can purchase the entire GSP No. 227 through the Geo-Institute of ASCE (Disclosure: No one at DBA benefits financially from the purchase).

Siegel, T.C. (2012). “Testing of Augered Cast-in-Place Piles installed with Varying Auger Rotations”, Full-Scale Testing and Foundation Design, Honoring Bengt H. Fellenius, Geotechnical Special Publication No. 227, Edited by M.H. Hussein, K. R. Massarsch, G.E. Likins, and R.D. Holtz, ASCE, pp333-348.

 

Foundation Design Fellenius

FHWA Research Project: Post-Grouted Drilled Shafts

DSCN1233

(Note from Robert: I used material from the team proposal and the article referenced below for this post, with the authors’ permission. Also, DBA is a significant participant in the project and we hope to provide updates as things move along.)

The Federal Highway Administration (FHWA) has partnered with the ADSC: The International Association of Foundation Drilling (ADSC-IAFD) on a comprehensive research project on post-grouted (also called base grouted or tip grouted) drilled shafts. The FHWA and the deep foundations industry are very interested in the proper application and implementation of post-grouting for drilled shafts. The potential benefits of post-grouting have been demonstrated, and the industry has attempted to capitalize on these benefits in numerous ways. Some of these attempts have been successful while others have not, which has led to confusion and even misapplication of post-grouting technology within the industry.

The project will include an extensive synthesis of existing practice and literature, evaluation of theoretical concepts, full-scale field testing, and comprehensive analysis of the field testing to develop design methods. Each phase of work will have a set of deliverables that will go through a rigorous review process. The project is anticipated to be completed sometime in 2014.

The four main objectives of the research program are:

  1. Bound the application of the post-grouting technology for the current state-of-knowledge;
  2. Quantify the improvement mechanism(s) for the post-grouting of drilled shafts;
  3. Develop design methodology(ies) for appropriate applications of post-grouting; and,
  4. Provide method(s) for verification.

To accomplish these objectives, a highly qualified and experienced team of practitioners and researchers has been assembled to execute this project. This team includes industry representatives from construction, design, and academia that can bring a variety of perspectives to the project as well as respond to input from the many stakeholders within the geotechnical and transportation design and construction communities that routinely implement this technology.

Dr. Antonio Marinucci, MBA, P.E., of ADSC-IAFD will serve as Project Manager for the project and will be responsible for coordination and oversight of all project activities. Dr. J. Erik Loehr, PE, of the University of Missouri will serve as Principal Investigator (PI) with overall technical responsibility for the project including technical planning, data collection, synthesis, interpretation, and document production. Three Co-Principal Investigators (Co-PIs) will collaborate with Dr. Loehr to address the technical aspects of the project: Dr. Marinucci of ADSC-IAFD; Dr. Dan Brown, P.E., D.GE of Dan Brown and Associates, PC; and Dr. Jesús Gómez, P.E., D.GE of Schnabel Engineering Consultants, Inc.

An Advisory Panel will be utilized to provide additional objective technical insight regarding planning and execution of the project and development of the project deliverables, as well as unique expertise regarding specific aspects of the proposed work. The Advisory Panel will include:

Mr. Tom Armour, P.E., D.GE of DBM Contractors, Inc.

Dr. Donald Bruce, CEng, D.GE of Geosystems, LP

Mr. Allen Cadden, P.E., D.GE of Schnabel Engineering Consultants, Inc.

Dr. Steven Dapp, P.E. of Dan Brown and Associates, PC

Mr. Michael Muchard of Applied Foundation Testing

Dr. Miguel Pando, PEng of the University of North Carolina at Charlotte.

To provide objective review and evaluation of project plans and deliverables at key stages of the project, a formal Peer Review Panel will be formed composed of representatives from throughout the drilled shaft industry. The peer review process will be coordinated through the drilled shaft technical committees of each of the major stakeholder organizations in the U.S.: the ADSC-IAFD Drilled Shaft Committee; the ASCE/Geo-Institute (ASCE/GI) Deep Foundations Committee; the Deep Foundations Institute (DFI) Drilled Shaft Committee; and the Transportation Research Board (TRB) Committee on Foundations of Bridges and Other Structures.

The final component of the project team will be the ADSC-IAFD Contractor Members, Associate Members, and Technical Affiliates that will provide substantial in-kind contributions to meet the needs of the proposed experimental programs. Likely in-kind contributions from ADSC members will include provision of testing sites and facilities, construction equipment, materials, testing apparatus, as well as services necessary to complete the proposed project.

The configuration of this team consisting of the PIs, the Advisory Panel and the Peer Review Panel will provide a thorough review process as well as “checks-and-balances” against any perceived or realized personal biases regarding the use of post-grouting with drilled shafts. It is believed that the recommendations resulting from this effort will reflect a consensus on the application, design and construction of base-grouted drilled shafts that will be accepted by the industry at-large. This should result in consistent application of this technique by the industry.

For a detailed description of the project, see the article linked below from May 2012 issue of Foundation Drilling magazine, available from the ADSC-IAFD. In the article, Dr. Marinucci provides the first in a series of updates that will be published reporting the progress of the research through the various phases of the project. We’ll provide posts here as new reports are released, as well as posts of all the action when field work gets started!

ADSC-FHWA Research Project: Evaluation and Guidance Development for Post-Grouted Drilled Shafts for Highways

Mike Holloway SuperPile 2012 Presentation

DSCN2543We have added Mike Holloway’s presentation at DFI SuperPile 2012 on May 17, 2012 to our Presentations Page.  Mike discussed some of the issues related to pile testing and what can influence the blow counts that are often relied upon to accept piles.  He covered the types of testing, limitations of various methods, and issues to consider when applying test results to production piling.

A Driven Pile is a Tested Pile – Not So Fast! – D. Michael Holloway, Ph.D., P.E. – DFI SuperPile 2012, Portland, OR, May 17, 2012

Girders go in at Hastings

photo by Jim Adams of the Minneapolis Star Tribune

Massive prestressed concrete girders, some of them setting a record for the longest concrete girders used on a Minnesota bridge, have been set at the New Hastings Bridge, currently under construction in Hastings, Minnesota.  The largest girders are 174 feet long, 8 feet tall, and weigh 108 tons!  There is a video of one of these huge beams being delivered on a 16 axle truck, below.  An article from the December 2011 issue of Concrete Products magazine about the girders can be found here.  To date, all of the girders between the north abutment and main span have been placed.  Crews are preparing piers 5 and 6 for the main span steel arches, which are scheduled to be floated in by barge and lifted into place late this year.  MnDOT has two web cams where  the bridge construction and the arch construction can be viewed. The Minneapolis Star Tribune has also been following the construction.  Their latest article, which hails the bridge as “a monumental marvel,” can be found here.

Click here for more information on our website about the New Hastings Bridge

Click here for MnDOT’s project page

GeoCongress 2012–Dan Gives A SOP Lecture; John Turner paper published

GeoCongress 2012, Oakland, California

GeoCongress 2012 Proceedings

In addition to the ADSC EXPO 2012 earlier in March (see post here), the annual Geo-Institute meeting for 2012, GeoCongress 2012 , was held later in the month in Oakland, California.  The conference featured a very large technical program with a variety of tracks covering geotechnical engineering topics.  There were also the annual named lectures (Terzaghi, Peck, etc.) and other special events. Randy Post wrote about his time at the GeoCongress at his blog, GeoPrac.net.  Check out all of his posts on the conference, including photos and video.

A key feature of this congress was the State of the Art (SOA) and State of the Practice (SOP) Lectures given throughout the four days.  Thirty prominent engineers were invited to give the SOA/SOP lectures.  Dan gave one of the SOP lectures with his highlighting advances in drilled foundation use and selection. His paper, along with all of the other SOA/SOP lectures, is included in GSP No. 226, Geotechnical Engineering State of the Art and Practice, Keynote Lectures from GeoCongress 2012.  His presentation is linked on the image below.

Pages from DB drilled foundations 2012 Oakland GI [Compatibility Mode]

 

During the regular technical sessions, John Turner presented a paper on a recent project case history on rock-socketed drilled shaft foundations used for a bridge . His paper is in the conference proceedings volume (GSP No. 225):

Turner, J.P., Duffy, J.D., Buell, R. and Zheng, X (2012). “Foundations for the Bridge at Pitkins Curve”, GeoCongress 2012 State of the Art and Practice in Geotechnical Engineering, Geotechnical Special Publication No. 225, ASCE, pp414-423.

Papers from ADSC EXPO 2012–Drilled Shafts and Other Drilled Foundations

ADSC EXPO 2012, San Antonio, Texas

2012-ADSC-EXPO-Technical-Conference-[2]

There were several of us presenting at the ADSC EXPO 2012 in mid-March: Dan, Erik, Robert and Tim. The EXPO is always a great event (occurs every 3 years) where equipment manufacturers and dealers bring out all of the big equipment (as Dr. Dave Elton at Auburn has been known to say: “It’s a classic case of big boys and big toys!”).  It is a lot of fun to be able to walk through a large show of equipment and tooling that is all clean and painted – you can see what it is all supposed to look like!  As an engineer, you can learn a lot about the latest tools, equipment capabilities, and the like from the sales and manufacturing reps.  The ADSC always does a great job putting this event on, and this year’s venue a the J.W. Marriott Hill Country Resort outside San Antonio was fantastic.

Dan and Robert both had papers included in the proceedings. Links to the papers are below.  Erik and Tim had presentations along with those that Dan and Robert gave on their papers.  Links to the presentations are on our Presentations page.

Brown, D.A. (2012). “Factors Affecting the Selection and Use of Drilled Shafts for Transportation Infrastructure Projects”, ADSC EXPO 2012 Geo-Construction Conference Proceedings, March 14-17, 2012, San Antonio, TX, pp25-35.

Thompson, W.R. (2012). “ADSC Research Project Update: Rock Sockets in the Southeastern U.S”, ADSC EXPO 2012 Geo-Construction Conference Proceedings, March 14-17, 2012, San Antonio, TX, pp103-117.

Update (Robert – 5/22/12): I have added a copy of an article from Foundation Drilling magazine on the ADSC research project.  To subscribe to Foundation Drilling, contact the ADSC and join!

Brown, D.A. and Thompson, W.R. (2012) “ADSC Research Supports Improved Design of Drilled Shaft Foundations in Atlanta Area Piedmont Rock”Foundation Drilling, Vol. 33, No. 2, February 2012, pp.27-39.