“Because of retreating glaciers, we
have deposits of clay, till, silt and sand,
with bedrock sometimes far below.
The challenge lies where we must balance
the cost and risk scale for every
soil type. Our primary service area,
Saskatoon, has a wide variety of almost
all soil types, so we must adapt to a wide
variety of conditions and be able to perform
the work effectively.”
In Saskatoon, for example, Cote’s
company’s primary concern is the high
groundwater table.
“We’ll typically deal with this in a
manner that affords us the ability to
minimize the direct exposure of groundwater
to piles,” he said. “We completed
a project last year where we were drilling
three-foot diameter by 36-foot deep
piles for a government agency, and we
were hitting artesian-like conditions
while drilling, so we performed an
emergency cost-and-risk analysis.”
Instead of risking bridging conditions
and cement wash-out with temporary
36-inch pressure installed casing, Cote
says his team decided to propose the
pile type be changed from drilled castin
place concrete to screwpiles.
As senior vice president of Keller
Canada, a specialty geotechnical contractor
that does foundation piling,
excavation support and ground
improvement scopes with offices in
Vancouver, Calgary, Edmonton, Regina,
Saskatoon and Toronto, Jeff Grieder
says a common problem his company
faces related to site and soil conditions
involves a provision of a suitable
working platform to support the piling
equipment.
“This is a major issue on sites that
work through break up and in the major
periods of rain on the prairies,” said
Grieder. “Owners, contractors and subs
all need to work together to realize that
we complete our work faster when we
are provided good stable access. Each
sub on the project benefits from this
stable work platform.”
Cyntech’s Roper adds that the biggest
uncertainty in most geotechnical
engineering projects is the unknown
nature of the primary load bearing
material – the soils.
“It’s a disclaimer that accompanies
even the most thorough and detailed
geotechnical reports,” he said. “For
example, a report will say it is limited
to the findings of these borings only
and any interpretation or extrapolation
between or beyond the findings of
these borings is done so at the risk of the
reader – or something to that nature.
Which, as a fellow professional in the
geotechnical and ground engineering
industry, I completely understand,
and have written reports with similar
disclaimers.”
To help combat this issue, Roper says
Cyntech can offer a project a more flexible
(modular) approach to the design
and installation of helical piles.
“Once the project geotechnical
design profile(s) have been established
and yield helical pile design(s) (diameter,
wall thickness, length, helical
configuration, etc.), an estimated final
installation torque is also specified,”
COVER FEATURE
The biggest
uncertainty in
most geotechnical
engineering projects
is the unknown
nature of the
primary load bearing
material – the soils.
SOLUTIONS
PILING INNOVATIVE POWERFUL AMERICANMADE TEI ROCK DRILLS
World’s Leading Hollow Bar Soil Nail Drilling Equipment
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limited access drills and rock drill components. TEI drilling equipment is
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CONTINUED ON PAGE 25 22 Q1 2017 www.pilingcanada.ca
/www.teirockdrills.com
/www.pilingcanada.ca
