Value engineering using load-test results
After meeting with the owners and reviewing the site, EBS
recommended pre-production pre-design load testing.
“We mobilized our equipment into a sector of the site
and installed test piles down until they hit their installation
torque and load-tested them to failure to see how much
capacity we could achieve,” said Huber. Chance helical piles
are a hybrid pile, “When they’re installed to a depth of 30 feet
to 40 feet, they have a grout column that encapsulates them
that is formed when the pile is being installed. So, we were
testing not only how competent the soil is to bear a load
of 23,000 foot-pounds (ft-lb) of torque applied to the helical
pile, but also how much extra capacity we achieved from
skin friction – that is, the grout-column-to-soil interface.”
Testing in the dense, sandy soil conditions at the site
established that the helical piles achieve an 18 per cent to
20 per cent higher capacity than the manufacturer’s recommended
maximum, Huber says, and at fairly shallow
elevations. The engineers were able to revise the plan to
reduce the number of piles, which would shorten the construction
schedule and lower costs by a further 20 per cent
compared to the original proposal.
Pretium Engineering, which, like EBS, is owned by the
C3 Group of Companies, worked closely with Van Boxmeer
and Stranges Structural Engineers in the multi-step process
to design the pile foundation. This involved carefully
reviewing the load tests with the client’s engineering team
to determine the allowable settlement for the building and
re-evaluating the building’s loading whenever construction
VTL
COVER FEATURE
WHEN YOU NEED MORE THAN JUST LEADS
Precision Placement
Long Piles or Large Batters
Piling or Drilling
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600 Ferguson Avenue North
Hamilton, Ontario, Canada L8L 4Z9
Tel: 1.905.528.7924 Fax: 1.905.528.6187
Toll Free: 1.800.668.9432 (in Canada and USA)
www.berminghammer.com
Email: bfssales@berminghammer.com
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