What methods and equipment are available for checking the azimuth of holes being drilled for anchors? I have set reference stakes forward and backward, but can't see through the rig. Are there electronic compasses available for mounting on rigs, and if so, can they remain accurate with steel...
My company likes to use passive anchors in soil or rock to restrain hydrostatic uplift or to support some retaining walls. I am familiar with PTI's guideline for design of post-tensioned anchors, but having difficulty finding guidelines for passive anchor design, other than the brief treatment...
We have a project where the Contractor wants to use well water for earthwork. The well water has a "very high" total dissolved solids content. At this point, I don't know whether it is salty, alkaline, or other. He will be building a water impoundment using highly plastic montmorillonitic...
Are there guidelines or correlations for estimating the driving resistance of steel sheet piles? A proposed design calls for driving PZ-35 and PZ-27 sheets 75 feet. The top 35 feet is stiff to very stiff fat clay and medium dense sand, but the remainder is dense sand and hard fat clay.
We are investigating a bridge pier on the sloped bank of a lake that has deflected towards the lake. It is founded on four drilled shafts and surrounded with about 30 feet of compacted clay or sandy clay backfill with a 30-degree slope. We want to know whether it is being deflected by excessive...
We need to backfill conical depressions about 8 feet deep around large drilled piers at the bottom of a lake. The water depth is 55 feet. We propose to place gravel or crushed stone through a tremie, but don't know how to get any compaction. We can use a diver. Are waterproof concrete...
We are using LPILE to analyze existing 48-inch diameter piers embedded in good limestone and supporting a pump station in a lake. A slide in the overburden soil is loading the piers laterally. The resulting shear diagram shows a high shear just below the top of the bedrock. The shear is much...
Our contractor has a problem driving steel sheet piles, and I would like advice on hammer sizing. He is driving pairs of PZC-13 sheets(22 psf) 22 feet long into very stiff to hard fat clay below the water table. He is using a Dawson HPH 1800 hydraulic hammer rated at 7235 to 13750 foot-pounds...
We are designing permanent post-tensioned anchors into shale to stabilize a 3H:1V cut slope. The anchors will be inclined 30 degrees from horizontal. The reaction blocks will bear against soft clay shale, very stiff clay, or alluvial sand. I have tried analyzing the blocks using passive...
A water storage basin about 50 feet deep and 600 feet across must penetrate 20 feet into clay shale that is subject to progressive slope failure. A cylindrical retaining wall 20 feet high and 500 feet in diameter, or perhaps elliptical 500 by 600 feet across, has been proposed to retain the...
