Work has begun to construct temporary piers to support the I-43 Leo Frigo Bridge. Pier 22 of the bridge settled approximately 2.5 feet in late September/early October. The new piers are being constructed by Lunda Construction. The goal of the structures is to prevent any additional settlement of the deck. The bridge will remain closed pending a permanent solution. The ENR article did not list what the piers will be founded on, but the conceptual drawings available from WisDOT seem to show drilled shaft foundations. [Source: ENR: Engineering News Record. Image: WisDOT via ENR]
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German town sinking after drilling operations
The historic town of Staufen in southwestern Germany on the western edge of the Black Forest is experiencing some rather unexpected downward movement these days. Several buildings, some of them historic, are experiencing cracking and distress and are still sinking at a rate of approximately 1mm per week. Investigations are underway, but everything seems to point towards drilling operations for geothermal energy which were conducted last fall. [Editor] More after the break…[/Editor]
Scary: Things that go bump…at the end of the bridge
[Update 2008-11-03] The Link to the Journal’s homepage requires you to purchase the article. Too bad. Try the CDOT report instead I guess. [/Update]
First off, sorry for the cheesy Halloween tie-in. The other day I read an interesting paper in the Journal of the Transportation Research Record, No. 2045, of the Transportation Research Board (TRB). The paper was titled: “Evaluation and Recommendations for Flowfill, and Mechanically Stabilized Earth Bridge Approaches.” I’ll post the full citation below. (Photo from FHWA NHI Soils and Foundation Course Slides, NHI Course No. 132012)
The authors describe the standard of practice for Colorado DOT (CDOT) projects for the last 16 years with regard to the construction of bridge approaches in an attempt to eliminate the problem with the “bump at the end of the bridge”. They discuss some of the common reasons for problems with approaches, and some possible solutions. Click through for more.
Mizzou Memorial Union Gets Lift from TerraThane Geotechnical Foam
Univ. of Missouri’s Historic Memorial Union, Built to Honor WWI Dead, Gets New Life with TerraThane Geotechnical Foam
MOUNT AIRY, NC—The Univ. of Missouri’s iconic Memorial Union, with its Gothic architecture and central bell tower, was built to commemorate the 117 Mizzou alumni who lost their lives in WWI, and has been under silent attack. Like all buildings built atop the ancient dry riverbeds of the tributary valleys of the Missouri River, the soil beneath is a mixture of sand, clay, and fine rock particles and highly susceptible to erosion from water. So, while hundreds of thousands of students walked the hallways of the building, water escaping steam pipes far beneath caused severe drying of the soil and destabilized it enough so that erosion created voids, or cavities in the soil, some as large as four feet. In turn, this caused the concrete slab floors atop the voids to become uneven, and the eventual danger of even greater problems loomed large.
A team of engineers went after the problem, including MU alums, Matt VanderTuig, P.E., of Bartlett & West, Jefferson City, MO, and Mark Whitehead, P.E. with extensive structural design and environmental engineering management experience. They suggested to Chris Hentges, president of SIRCAL Contracting, Jefferson City, the general contractor in charge of the job, that instead of using the older method of mudjacking, a highly involved and intrusive process of drilling large holes in the slabs—sometimes removing the slabs entirely—and pumping “mud”, ultra-heavy Portland cement-based grout, into the void, then leveling the slabs, that the university might better be served by using the newer polyurethane foam system method called “foamjacking” or “polyjacking.”
[Editor] Be sure to click through for the rest of the interesting project from GeoPrac sponsor NCFI Polyurethanes and TerraThane! [/Editor]