Foundations for the Burj Dubai - The raft slab on top of 192 pile foundations

Foundations and Geotechnical Engineering for the Burj Dubai – World’s Tallest Building

January 5, 2010 rockman 15

The Burj Dubai Tower has recently reached it’s final height of 818m (2,684-ft or almost exactly 1/2 a mile!). The foundation system for the Burj Dubai is comprised of 192 bored piles (drilled shafts in my practice) 1.5-m (approximately 5-ft) in diameter and approximately 50-m deep (164-ft). A 3.7-m (12-ft) thick raft foundation sits on top of the piles under the full footprint of the structure. (Image from BurjDubaiSkyscraper.com)

The geotechnical investigation for the Burj Dubai (now to be known as Burj Khalifa after the UAE President) is described in detail in a paper by the geotechnical engineer of record, Grahame Bunce of Hyder Consulting (UK) and the independent technical reviewer for the geotechnical design, Harry G. Poulos of Coffey Geotechnics. Click through for the link to the paper and more details. […]

Geothermal Rig Drills Into Subway Tunnel in Stockholm, Sweden

December 15, 2009 rockman 2

And a train was actually hit! Fortunately it was stationary on the tracks, but it crushed the side panel of the driver’s carriage. Neither the driver nor any passengers were injured in the incident. The […]

Paper on Foundations for the Impressive kcICON Bridge

November 18, 2009 rockman 1

Robert Thompson at Dan Brown and Associates posted a paper he and Dan wrote on the kcICON bridge. From the DBA website: I have added the paper that we wrote and Dan presented at the […]

London’s Victorian Era Corinthia Hotel Underpinning Job

November 9, 2009 rockman Comments Off

Root Piles (or "pali radice" to use the Italian term) were used to underpin a famous Victorian Era London Hotel this fall in preparation for its refurbishment and re-opening in October 2010 as the new […]

Video: Drilled Pier Retaining Wall or Soldier Pile Wall

November 4, 2009 rockman Comments Off

A drilled pier wall is an example of a retaining wall that you might use when global stability or bearing capacity considerations preclude you from a shallow foundation for a conventional retaining wall. In this […]

Project Related

New Issue of International Journal of Geoengineering Case Histories

October 22, 2009 rockman Comments Off

Issue Number 3 was released with some excellent papers including “Leaning Tower of Pisa: Behavior after Stabilization Operations”, “The Washington Monument Case History” and “Reconstruction of Konstantinovsky Palace in a Suburb of Saint Petersburg”. (Image […]

12 Miles of Tunnels for D.C. Sewer

September 11, 2009 rockman Comments Off

Anacostia River in Washington D.C. In Washington D.C., the D.C. Water and Sewer Authority (D.C. WASA) finalized a lont-term plan in 2002 aimed at reducing combined sewer outfalls into the Potomac River and its tributary, the Anacostia River. A major portion of this plan is a $2.2 Billion (US) deep tunnel program to handle excess stormwater flows and prevent the combined sewage from being discharged into the environment. Read on for a map and more info. (Photo of Anacostia River, by D.C. WASA)

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