Innovative Foundation System for London Office Building

August 3, 2009 rockman Comments Off

Cannon Place office building in London This has to be one of the most complex geotechnical engineering problems I’ve heard of for a building, if not for any kind of project. For starters, beneath the proposed 10-story office building referred to as Cannon Place lies the Cannon Street Train Station built in 1868. Also beneath the site are walls and foundations of a Roman Governor’s palace. In order to accommodate these features, the building has 21-m cantilevers at each end, with the load bearing happening over two groupings of columns at the 1/3 points. In section it looks quite like a 3-span bridge…without the abutments and stacked 10-stories tall! More after the break. (Images by New Civil Engineer) […]

Geotubes to protect Grand Isle Louisiana

Video: Sand Filled Geotextile Tubes To Protect Grand Isle Louisiana

July 31, 2009 rockman Comments Off

Geotubes to protect Grand Isle Louisiana In this ENR.com video, a US Army Corps of Engineers (USACE) project to protect Grand Isle Louisiana from the erosional effects of a large storm surge is described. 5.7 miles of sand filled geotextile tubes or geotubes 30-ft in diameter are used to form the core of a dune along with a geotextile erosion apron held in place by anchor tubes. The design is aimed to prevent devastating erosion in the event that a large storm surge overtops the protective dunes. The sand is screened on site and mixed with water to form a slurry that is pumped into the tube. Once the tubes are in place, additional sand will be placed over the top and the dune revegetated. If the topping sand is eroded away, the Corps hopes the fix will be easier to perform with the tubes. Click through for the video.

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Ocean Shore Railroad Tracks at the Devil's Slide in the early 1900s.

Devil’s Slide Tunnel Update and First Attempts to Tame the Landslide

July 1, 2009 rockman Comments Off

The Devil’s Slide Tunnel project is on schedule and on budget according to a news story at ABC7News.com from earlier in June. The video (shown after the break) has a few nice shots showing rock bolting, soil nailing at the portals, and the geologic mapping and laser scanning that happens at the tunnel face.

I also came across a very neat article about how the Ocean Shore Railroad Company was the first to try to cut into the slope along what is now PCH 1 at the Devil’s Slide back in the early 1900s. They were trying to connect the then rural farming community of Half-Moon Bay with San Francisco. The railroad fought the reoccurring landslide and serious rockfalls. Ocean Shore Railroad went bankrupt in 1922 and pulled up its rails, making room for the current highway. (Photo at left from halfmoonbaymemories.com)

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Drilled shaft rig topples over in Queesnland Australia - Michaela O'Neill, thedaily.com.au

Drilled Shaft Rig Topples Over in Queensland, Australia

June 30, 2009 rockman Comments Off

Fortunately nobody was seriously injured as a drilled shaft rig toppled over at a construction site in Maroochydore, Queensland, Australia. No word on what caused the accident at the building site. The operator was inside […]

Upheaval of drilled shaft connected to cable barrier. Photo by TxDOT

Lateral Load Testing of Drilled Shafts For Cable Barriers – ADSC Study

June 25, 2009 rockman Comments Off

ADSC published a summary of some research being conducted by the University of Texas, Arlington (UTA) through funding by TxDOT. The research involves the lateral load testing of drilled shafts that are used for cable […]

Swedish Nuclear Waste Repository Could Begin Construction in 2016

June 24, 2009 rockman Comments Off

ENR reports that a nuclear waste repository for spent nuclear fuel in Sweden could begin construction as early as 2016. The facility would consist of 50km of tunnels in granite bedrock up to 500-m deep. […]

Emergency Repair of Allegheny River Lock No. 6

June 12, 2009 rockman Comments Off

Severe erosion was discovered on an October 2008 inspection of Allegheny River Lock and Dam No. 6 near Pittsburgh, PA, a US Army Corps of Engineers structure. In the Q1 2009 issue of PileDriver Magazine […]

Micropile Underpinning of US 69 Bridge over Kansas River

May 14, 2009 rockman 2

A temporary micropile underpinning foundation system was used to support the abutments of the US 69 bridge over the Kansas River near Kansas City, KS while repairs to the abutment bearing devices were performed. This post is based on my notes from the presentation titled “Emergency Micropile Underpining of the U.S. 69 Truss – Kansas River Bridge” by Jim Brennan, Assistant [State?] Geotechnical Engineer with KDOT. It was the first presentation of the 34th Southwest Geotechnical Engineers Conference in Phoenix this week. Read on for more.

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Voids Open as a Result of Tunneling Under Seattle’s Beacon Hill

May 7, 2009 rockman Comments Off

The Seattle Times (hat tip to ASCE SmartBrief) has reported that seven voids have been discovered above the Beacon Hill Tunnel with one opening up at the ground surface. The tunnel is being constructed by Sound Transit, the area’s transportation agency as part of a roughly $2.6 billion (yep, billion) light-rail project connecting downtown Seattle with the University of Washington and SEA-TAC airport. The voids were a result of running sand pockets in the otherwise stable clay units that were encountered by the tunnel boring machine or TBM. These voids migrated up like a chimney with one reaching the surface, almost 160-ft above the tunnel. This void was apparently 21-ft deep and opened up in a resident’s front yard and could have easily swallowed her up as she noticed it while gardening. The other voids were discovered at a depth of 20- to 65-ft below the ground surface. More after the break. (Illustration from Seattle Times)

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kcICON Drilled Shafts Completed

May 5, 2009 rockman Comments Off

The drilled shaft foundations for the kcICON bridge over the Missouri River have been completed according to Dan Brown and Associates, LLC, the geotechnical engineers on the job. The 1700-ft long bridge conveys the I-29/35 […]