Tag Archives: Drilled Foundations

Drilled Piles, Foundation Design, Foundation Testing, Ground Improvement, Load Testing

Foundations for the New Sacremento Entertainment and Sports Center

 

kingsarenanew_670

Contributed by Rob Saunders, P.E. – DBA

DBA has been working on an exciting new project currently under construction in downtown Sacramento, California: the new Sacramento Arena, known as the Entertainment and Sports Center (ESC).  The ESC will be a multi-use, publicly owned indoor arena. The Sacramento Kings will be the primary tenant and the arena is expected to host other indoor sports and music concerts, as well.  Once completed, the ESC will replace Sleep Train Arena as the home of the Kings.  According to Kings Chairman Vivek Ranadive, the 17,500-seat arena will be “one of the most iconic structures on the planet … It’s going to put Sacramento on the world map.”

turner

Turner Construction is the head of development for the new arena. Malcolm Drilling Company was awarded the contract to design and construct the foundation system.  DBA worked closely with Malcolm to design Omega piles (a drilled and grouted displacement pile) to serve as the foundations for the new arena.  The site presented unique design challenges, including liquefiable soil conditions and existing deep foundations from the demolisLogo_Malcolm_Stacked_Bluehed portion of the Downtown Plaza.

DBA’s design incorporates 18” and 24”  Omega piles.  An extensive site-specific load test program was performed to determine the axial resistances of the piles.  Eight test piles were instrumented with strain gauges to measure the load distribution in the piles.  Supplemental cone penetration testing was performed following load testing to better correlate the load test results with the subsurface conditions.

The piles were designed to resist ground motions from seismic events using site-specific ground curvature data developed by Pacific Engineering and Analysis. The piles were designed to resist the curvature at the anticipated pile section with only a single center reinforcing bar, eliminating the need to extend the entire cage to the bottom of the pile. This detail in the design is very important to ease the pile installation for the site conditions.

The final design incorporates a total of 952 piles to support the arena structure (346 18” dia. Piles and 606 24” dia. piles). The new arena is estimated to cost $477 million, with $255 million of that being funded by the City of Sacramento. The rest of the arena ($222 million) will be funded by the Sacramento Kings. Construction began October 29, 2014 and is planned to be completed by October of 2016.

The groundbreaking for the project was featured by the Sacremento Bee on October 29, 2014 (link).

Drilled Piles, Foundation Design, Foundation Testing

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.

 

Drilled Shafts, Load Testing

Early Statnamic Lateral Load Test Paper by Dan

While at the 2012 Geo-Congress I purchased a couple of books at the ASCE bookstore.  One was GSP 88: Analysis, Design, Construction and Testing of Deep Foundations, Proceedings of the OTRC ‘99 Conference. There are several interesting papers in the GSP, including an early paper by Dan on lateral Statnamic testing.  A full scale lateral load test was performed on a 36 inch tests shaft using a Statnamic device.  The test was performed at the Auburn University National Geotechnical Experiment Station Site (NGES).  I guess you could say this paper is literally a “blast” from the past!

 

Brown, D.A. (1999). “An Experiment with Statnamic Lateral Loading of a Drilled Shaft”, Geotechnical Special Publication No. 88: Analysis, Design, Construction and Testing of Deep Foundations, Proceedings of the OTRC ‘99 Conference, Austin, Texas, April 29-30, 1999, ASCE, pp309-318.

Bridge Foundations, Drilled Piles, Drilled Shafts, Foundation Design, Micropiles, Slope Stability

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.

Bridge Foundations, Drilled Shafts, Foundation Design, Micropiles

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.

Drilled Shafts, Foundation Design, Load Testing

ADSC SE Chapter Lawrenceville Test Site Report Published

Fig 12 - Test shaft 1 completedThe report for the ADSC Southeast Chapter Lawrenceville, Georgia Test Site is complete and published (link below).

This is the second report from their research project on rock-socketed drilled shafts in the Southeast U.S.  This report is from the Lawrenceville, Georgia test site where shafts constructed in metamorphic rock of the Piedmont geologic province were load tested using the O-Cell load test device.  The report link is below.  Additional information about the test site can be found at the Lawrenceville Site Page.

The first site of this project was in Nashville, Tennessee where shafts constructed in limestone were tested.  Information on the Nashville Site and the test reports can be found at the Nashville Site Page.

Both reports will be the feature of a paper and presentation by Robert at the 2012 ADSC Expo, March 13-17, in San Antonio, TX. More information about the Expo can be found here.

Thompson, W.R., Brown, D.A., and Hudson, A.B. (2012). “Load Testing of Drilled Shaft Foundations in Piedmont Rock, Lawrenceville, GA, Report for ADSC Southeast Chapter, January, 2012.

Bridge Foundations, Drilled Shafts, Foundation Design, Site updates

I-70 St. Louis Bridge–New Papers by Paul and Dan

The drilled shaft foundations for the new I-70 Mississippi River Bridge in St. Louis, MO are the subject of two recent papers written by Paul and Dan and published by DFI.  Dan presented the paper focusing on the Alternate Technical Concept (ATC) process at the DFI 36th Annual Conference in October. (previous post here).  A case history paper by Paul and Dan was published last month in Volume 5, Number 2 of the DFI Journal.  Links to the papers are below, as well as on our Publications page.  Other posts on this bridge are here.

Brown, D.A., Axtell, P.J., and Kelley, J. (2011). “The Alternate Technical Concept Process for the Foundations at the New Mississippi River Bridge, St. Louis”,  Proceedings of the 36th Annual Conference on Deep Foundations, 2011, Boston, MA, USA, pp171-177.

This paper was originally published in the Proceedings of the 36th Annual Conference on Deep Foundations, the 2011 annual meeting of DFI.  Go to www.dfi.org to purchase the procedings or for further information.

Axtell, P.J. and Brown, D.A. (2011). “Case History – Foundations for the New Mississippi River Bridge – St.Louis”, DFI Journal Volume 5, Number 2, December 2011, Deep Foundations Institute, pp3-15.

This paper was originally published in DFI’s bi-annual journal, Volume 5, No. 2 in December 2011.  DFI is an international technical association of firms and individuals involved in the deep foundations and related industry. The DFI Journal is a member publication. To join DFI and receive the journal, go to www.dfi.org for further information.

Drilled Shafts, Foundation Design, Load Testing

ADSC Lawrenceville Test Site–We Have Winners!

That’s right load test fans, The results are in! The ADSC Southeast Chapter is proud to announce the “winners” from the prediction contest for the Lawrenceville, GA test site. In the table below, we have listed the winner and their prediction. The winners are the closest to the average measured values as reported by Loadtest, Inc and may not represent the reported maximum values recommended in the final report by DBA. We won’t release the final report until the ASCE Georgia Section Geotechnical Group meeting November 15, 2011 at 6:30pm at the Georgia Power Company’s Headquarters in Atlanta. Dr. Brown will be presenting the findings then – so come to the meeting and get it first, or look to the DBA or ADSC web sites after November 15th to get the report.

 

Shaft

Name

Prediction

1 – Unit Base Resistance

Gloria Rodgers
(Building and Earth Sciences, Inc.)

750 ksf

1 – Unit Side Resistance

Todd Barber (Geo-Hydro Engineers, Inc.)

50 ksf

2 – Unit Base Resistance

Todd Barber (Geo-Hydro Engineers, Inc.)

690 ksf

2 – Unit Side Resistance

TIE:
Jim Pegues (Southern Company Svcs.)
Tom Scruggs (Georgia DOT)

3 ksf
Drilled Shafts, Foundation Design, Load Testing

ADSC Rock-Socketed Drilled Shafts in the SE Research Project Site No.2 – Comments Welcomed

After some lengthy delays, the rock-socketed drilled shaft research sponsored by the Southeast Chapter of the ADSC is back on track.  A second site has been selected at the site of Foundation Technologies, Inc. in Lawrenceville, Georgia.  This site will investigate the resistance of some of the rocks of the Piedmont for drilled shaft design.  The first test site was in Nashville, Tennessee.  The report of the first test site and other information can be found at the test site page.   General information about the complete project, including a list of participating/contributing companies and organizations, can be found at the project page.

Bruce Long (Long Foundation Drilling Company) is the lead for the ADSC on this project and has requested interested parties to provide comment on the test plan for the second site (see links below).  The hope is to have load testing occur this July if every thing comes together properly.  Bruce sent the following email with some refresher material on the Nashville test site and an update on the startup for the Lawrenceville site:

 

First, I would like for everyone to know that the load test program jointly planned between the Atlanta area ASCE Geotechnical community and the Southeast Chapter of the ADSC is alive and well despite some longer than planned delays.  The final boring data has been in hand for some time and Dan Brown and his group have reviewed this information and submitted a preliminary load test program for review and comment.  This program is very similar to the test program that was performed in Nashville a couple of years back.  For informational purposes, the results of that test program has resulted in an increased awareness of the available load carrying capacity in the limestone formations in the area.  Historically, shafts were designed almost exclusively utilizing end bearing with the normal range of values allowed ranging from 60-100 KSF.  In recent months, we have seen projects now being designed with recommended values ranging from 100 up to 250 KSF with an increasing number of designs also relying on skin friction values up to 25 KSF in sound limestone sockets.  The information gained from these load tests has given area engineers increased confidence in raising the bar for future drilled shaft designs.  This will result in lower foundation costs for owners of public and private projects alike.  For those involved in the design process, better information will result in improved design values and an improved competitive position for those willing to utilize this data.

Now we are prepared to move forward with the planned testing in the Atlanta area.  I have attached the final geotechnical report for your review.  There are several people and companies that have generously volunteered their time and expertise to make this happen, Todd Barber with Geo-Hydro Engineers, Inc. being the most notable of these.  His persistence and assistance was invaluable.  Others that contributed in a variety of ways include Mactec, Golder Associates, Georgia Tech and GeoTesting Express.  Thanks to everyone for their efforts.

Also attached is the preliminary memo from Rob Thompson of Dan Brown and Associates.  What he has outlined are suggestions based upon the boring information for two separate Osterberg Load cell tests.  One would be on a shaft that was hand-cleaned, while the second shaft would be machine-cleaned only.  This would allow a comparison to determine the effects (if any) that traditional hand-cleaning has on shaft behavior.  This memo is being sent out with the intention that review and comments from the geotechnical community be considered and incorporated in the final program.  Depending upon the extent of comments, a final meeting could be necessary to discuss any proposed revisions.  If suggestions are minimal, such a meeting might not be required.  In this case, we would proceed with shaft installation and testing as soon as possible.

Thanks for your patience–I think that the final results will be worth the time.  It has been very rare that full scale load testing be done in hard rock areas (Piedmont or Limestone), but if the results of our Nashville area testing are any indication, I think the results will definitely show that the effort was worthwhile.

Please take time to review this information and e-mail or call me with any comments that you might have.  As soon as all comments have been reviewed, we will let everyone know our plan to proceed.  I would like to have comments submitted to me by May 27, 2011.  If there are any questions regarding our plans, schedule, etc., please feel free to contact me at your convenience.

 

I have linked the proposed load test plan memo and the boring information below. Bruce would like comments from interested parties to be submitted by May 27, 2011. Please submit comments to him at blong@lfdc.com.

A blog page for this test site has been created and will be updated as the project progresses. We intend to have a prediction contest similar to the one we had for the Nashville site, so keep checking for information. Better yet, subscribe to our blog using one of the social media links at the top of the right sidebar of the blog.

Load Test Plan Memo from Dan Brown (20 May 2010)

Summary of Test Borings from GeoHydro Engineers (26 Jan 2010)

Drilled Shafts, Load Testing

Audubon Bridge Closure–The Span is Complete!

On December 29, 2010, Audubon Bridge Constructors recently “closed” the main span of the John James Audubon Bridge between New Roads and St. Francisville, Louisiana.   Watch the video featured at the top of the page at the bridge link to hear about the bridge, including the drilled shaft foundations!  For something really fascinating, go to the webcams here and scroll back through the various dates.  They have archived images all the way back to start of construction.

Photo: Chris Usery, Figg Bridge Inspectors

The last cables were installed on January 3, 2011 as noted on the project website:

 

The last two cable stays of the longest cable-stayed bridge in the Western Hemisphere were installed on January 3, 2011, five days after the spans were connected. The John James Audubon Bridge, Louisiana’s newest crossing over the Mississippi River, now has all of its 136 cable stays in place.

This bridge will be the longest cable-stayed bridge in North America when it opens later in 2011.  Again, from the project web site:

The spans of the longest cable-stayed bridge in the Western Hemisphere were connected on December 29, 2010, stretching 1/3 of a mile over the Mississippi River. The John James Audubon Bridge, connecting Pointe Coupee and West Feliciana parishes in Louisiana, is approximately 92% complete. Construction of the spans began from both sides of the 500-foot tall towers earlier this year. Both sides continue to progress at a rapid pace, and now the meeting of the spans has occurred.

Steve Dapp and I had the pleasure of working with many great people during our time on site (much more time for Steve than for me!) during foundation construction.  One of them, Chris Ursery of Figg Bridge Inspectors, has been great about providing us with photos now and then to keep us updated of some of the details of the bridge construction.  Chris has granted us permission to share a few of his recent photos, which are shown below or can be seen in our web albums here.

Previous post on Audubon Bridge.