Steve just can’t get enough of the state of Louisiana. Now that the Audubon Bridge foundations are complete, he needed an excuse to get back and found himself in the Crescent City observing production shaft base grouting at the Huey P. Long Bridge project. Here area few more good construction photos to supplement my previous post.
Here is an interesting story in the New Orleans Times-Picayune about the bridge project explaining how they are widening the bridge.
Yes, you read that right – the last drilled shaft has been installed on the John James Audubon Bridge near New Road, Louisiana. The project has been quite an adventure for us, especially Steve. He spent the most time on the site during shaft excavation, tip grouting, load testing, and even pile driving. Robert got to spend a fair amount of time, too, over the last couple of years. Paul was even lucky enough to make a couple of trips.
The shaft construction was concluded with one last O-cell test on Shaft 3W South. Dan was present for the last load test which went fabulously well.
If you are going to the Geo-Institute congress GeoForida 2010 next February in West Palm Beach, you can hear Steve present the paper he and Dan wrote on the tip grouting and load test program.
The bridge is still under construction, of course, and will be an awesome structure when completed. It was an exciting project for us to be a part of the team. We’ll have a project summary posted in the near future to highlight the details of the foundations. For now, you will have to be satisfied with the slideshows below (in reverse chronological order) from some of our visits this summer and fall.
Load Test at Shaft 3W South – October 2009
Excavation of Shaft 3W South – September 2009
Shaft Grouting and other Construction – June 2009
Shaft Excavation, Pile Driving, and Cofferdams – May 2009
I have added the paper that we wrote and Dan presented at the Deep Foundations Institute 34th Annual Conference on Deep Foundations that was held in Kansas City, MO late last month. The paper highlights how the design-build process was successful in the design and construction of the large diameter drilled shafts supporting the bridge. We discuss the installation methods used, the load test program, and how we evaluated the durability of the shale rock sockets under drilling fluid.
You can check out the progress of the bridge at the project website.
If you frequent this blog, you have noticed that posts have been rare the last few months. That is mostly to my being in the field a lot this summer and very busy on lost of projects. While that is good, it meant I did not have time for updates. Below are some slide shows from a few drilled shaft projects we worked on this summer.
Garden State Parkway Mullica River Bridge, New Jersey – Test Shaft Installation
Paul took a trip to lovely New Jersey to observe a large diameter test shaft on the Mullica River Bridge. DBA worked as a consultant for Parsons Brinckerhoff on an 8-foot diameter, 220-foot deep test shaft. CASE was the drilled shaft contractor and Agate was the general contractor. DBA consulted on the design of the test shaft program, as well as the use of Self Consolidating Concrete (SCC).
Drilled Shaft Lateral Load Test Research with the University of Kansas
Paul took a ride out west to Kansas City, Kansas (close to home!) to observe a drilled shaft lateral load test in Wyandotte County, near the Cabela’s store on I-435. The test is part of ongoing research by the University of Kansas for the Kansas DOT. DBA was involved in previous research concerning laterally loaded shafts behind MSE walls (see previous post, click here for more information on the project). This research continues on the same theme of investigating the behavior of laterally loaded shafts socketed into the sedimentary rocks in eastern Kansas. DBA does not have an active role in this project, just an academic interest.
Huey P. Long Bridge Improvements, New Orleans, Louisiana – Test Shaft Installation
The Huey P. Long Bridge in New Orleans (built in the 1930s) is undergoing a major rehab and expansion. The vehicle traffic will increase from 2 9-foot lanes in each direction to 3 11-foot lanes in each direction. This is a very interesting combined highway and railroad bridge with a fascinating history. The bridge is actually a private bridge owned by the New Orleans Public Belt Railway (click the link to see some cool photos from the construction of the bridge in the 1930s). The project website is here.
DBA was consulting with the joint venture building the bridge for the base-grouted drilled shafts under one new pier. A test-shaft was built and tested with O-cells. Robert was on site while they excavated the test shaft. Steve was on site during grouting.
The May 2009 issue of Foundation Drilling had an article by Dan and Robert summarizing the recent research on drilled shafts socketed into rock for the Southeast Chapter of ADSC .
The article has been posted to our Publications Page. The full report is located here, for those looking for a little light reading.
A test site has been selected for Atlanta in the Piedmont formation. Check back here or at the project page for updates as things move forward.
Work by DBA is all but compete on the kcICON project. All drilled shafts have been installed and base grouted. Construction of the shafts went very well, with no significant issues. Hayes Drilling installed all of the land-based shafts. AFT performed all of the base grouting.
The main pylon in the river continues to take shape. It won’t be long before PCC will have it looking like a bridge!
Paul has been “enjoying” observing drilled shafts at night and base grouting during the day. A collection of some of his photos from the last bits of shaft construction are below. He got some great shots of the pylon, including some out in the river.
More pictures here.
Previous post here.
I had the pleasure of making two trips to the Audubon Bridge site in April to help Steve. I got to observe the excavation of two of the shafts on the West High Approach (on land!), observe base grouting of some of the West High Approach shafts, and base grouting of the test shaft on the East High Approach. While there, I got to see both of the river pier cofferdams. They were something else to see with all of the bracing and sheet piles. I did not get to see them installed, but I understand it was quite an interesting process as the cofferdams were “jacked down” into place. While I was there, they were cutting of the permanent casing that sticks up above the seal slab of the pier.
As usual, some pictures from this trip are below.
More pictures here.
Previous posts here.
While not as current, the project web site has a photo gallery with interesting photos, including from the high water of April, 2008.
West Pier and West High Approach Construction
East Pier and East High Approach Construction
Last week’s International Foundation Congress and Equipment Exposition was a huge success! Dan gave a keynote address on Tuesday on managing risk in deep foundations within the design-build delivery model. Paul, Erik, and I also had papers to present. The technical sessions were excellent, the indoor exhibits were excellent, and the outdoor exhibits of foundation equipment were outstanding! The ADSC, Geo-Institute, and PDCA were the co-organizers of the event. A big hats off to all of the staff of all three organizations that made the event a huge success! Thanks and “atta boy” go to Mohamad Hussein, P.E. (Conference Chair) and to Dan (Technical Program Chair) for all of their work, as well as the rest of the organizing committee.
I have also blogged about the conference here at GeoPrac.net.
Here are some pictures of the outdoor exhibits:
There were over 300 papers included in the conference. The proceedings were published as three Geotechnical Special Publications:
GSP 185: Contemporary Topics in Deep Foundations
GSP 186: Contemporary Topics in In-Situ Testing, Analysis, and Reliability of Foundations
GSP 187: Contemporary Topics in Ground Modification, Problem Soils, and Geo-Support
The editors, Magued Iskander, Ph.D., P.E. (Polytechnic Institute of New York University), Debra Laefer, Ph.D. (University College Dublin, Ireland), and Mohamad Hussein, P.E. (GRL) all had their work cut out for them.
I have added all seven papers authored by DBA team members to our site. The links are below, or you can go to our Publications page.
I started on a post back in January, realizing I never finished it when I started writing a new one for this project. So, this one now covers a few months!
Work on the land bents began back in November, before it got really cold! There are 5 land-based bents (Bent 1 on the “south” side of the river and Bents 2 – 5 on the “north” side of the river). Work started with Bent 2 in November, of which Paul took a few photos that I have put into the slideshow below. After a pause for the holidays and scheduling, work on Bent 3 was started in January. The drilled shaft contractor, Hayes Drilling, begins shaft excavation in late afternoon so that that is completed early in the morning for concrete to be placed in the daytime. This means that Paul is verifying the low temperature forecasts of the local KC weather personalities, as well as messing up his sleep habits with many late nights (early mornings?) spent observing the shaft excavations. Paul writes concerning the progress as of this week:
The main pylon is beginning to take shape as the delta-tower rises out of the river. The drilled shafts are complete at Bents 2 and 3, including base-grouting for QA purposes. Despite encountering several difficult boulders right above bedrock, the shafts at Bent 4 have been installed and are awaiting base-grouting. Hayes has constructed three of the five shafts at Bent 5. When complete, they’ll move their operation to the south bank to complete the five shafts at Bent 1.
Pile sleeves have been installed behind the MSE walls at the north and south end bents and are awaiting HP14x73 piles. The piles at the south end bent will be driven after settlement of the fill is mostly complete. The north end bent piles will be installed upon completion of the Bent 5 shafts.
The MSE abutments are being constructed prior to pile driving, hence the sleeves (corrugated metal pipe) being set for the piles.
I have complied a slideshow from some of Paul’s latest pictures. There are a couple in there from early work on site. You can see the pylon tower in the river is coming on up!
More pictures here.
Previous post here, here and here.
Dan has updated the report for the ADSC SE Chapter research project Nashville, TN site. The new link is below.