Foundation Design, Construction and Testing

Major Bridges over the Fitzroy River, Yeppen; John Holland Group and Aecom for Transport and Main Roads, Queensland

Review of site investigation reports and development of stratigraphic profiles and engineering models.  Development of six alternative costed concept design options.  Execution of the PDA testing program and Capwap analyses for the selected precast octagonal driven pile solution.  Correlation of the PDA results and Pile Driving Monitor for evaluation of the capacity of all untested piles.  Technical and construction advice and recommendations to the client. Sign-off of all piles.

New Parallel Runway Dredge Mooring, Temporary Piling ; Smithbridge for Brisbane Airports Corporation

Prediction of minimum pile installation embedment to satisfy capacity requirements and to maximize the ability to extract the piles with vibratory hammers after execution of the works.  Pile testing to confirm and refine the embedments.  Prediction of peak velocities on buried sewer line structure from both vibratory installation and pile driving.

South Road Superway;  Urban Superway JV – John Holland / MacMahon / Leed

The Urban Superway project involved the construction of 2.8km of elevated roadway, supported on CFA pile foundations for the Department of Transport, Energy and Infrastructure, South Australia (DTEI). This was the first major road project in Australia where an alternative design based on CFA piles was accepted as the foundation solution. Geotechnical design, constructability advice and testing services throughout tender and delivery phases.  Concept and Detailed Pile Design, Geotechnical and Constructability Advice, CMC Embankment Design, PDA, Static and Integrity Testing.

Sandy Corner Bridge ; Decmil for Transport and Main Roads, Queensland

Development of geotechnical ground models. Driveability Analysis of non-conforming hammer for evaluation of tension stresses.  Development of an installation control strategy to minimize tension stresses to an acceptable level.  Review of downdrag design to rationalize and simplify construction detail of pile penetration through the abutments.

Electric Pole Distribution and Sub-Transmission Design Methodology and Workshops for Ausgrid

Purpose-built unique pole embedment design calculator (PEC) based on GIS implementation of stratigraphies and soil and rock strength models derived from soil-landscapes across the Ausgrid network franchise using a library of standard poles, and construction techniques.  Delivery of workshops to educate electrical designers on foundation design issues and use of the PEC solution.

NCIG Coal Export Terminal, Kooragang Island, Newcastle

Evaluation of stability, settlement, and lateral movements of embankments on soft clay foundations, including back analysis of surcharged areas, analysis of reinforced soil wall (RSW) abutments, modelling of controlled stiffness columns, assessment of structural adequacy of embedded piles under moments induced by lateral movements.  Numerical modelling using Plaxis 2D and Plaxis 3D.  Verification of RSW abutments compliance with RMS Specification R57 Design of Reinforced Soil Walls.

Concavo, Victoria Harbour Construction Review; Lend Lease

Assisting the client with expert review of bored pile collapse, including post-collapse site investigation of groundwater chemistry, construction records, use of bentonite and polymer supporting fluids.  Evaluation of subcontractor claim.

Sub-transmission Lines, New South Wales and Victoria; Ausgrid and PowerCor

Foundation designs for 50 or more subtransmission line projects in geologies ranging from deep estuarine soft clays, deep and variable mining spoil fills, sand dunes, expansive clays, weathered and hard rock across the Ausgrid and PowerCor franchises.  Solutions including mass foootings, drilled and placed poles, driven piles with bolted on poles.  Site investigations including bores, CPTs and geophysical methods.  Challenges of designing near-surface foundations across widely distributed structures with significant geological variations and limited SI information.

INPEX Onshore LNG Processing Facilities, Darwin; John Holland Group and Piling Contractors

Execution of parallel dynamic pile testing for static test piling program and delivery of PDA and Capwap services for contract piling comprising in excess of 1500 open-ended pipe piles.  Evaluation of pile plugging and pile setup effectsin residual soils and basement deeply weathered siltstones.  Correlations of static and dynamic testing.  Development of pile acceptance criteria for multiple pile sizes, capacities, and piling hammers.

Construction Jetties and Offloading Wharves for LNG Processing Facilities, Gladstone and Curtis Island; John Holland Group and Golding Contractors for APLNG, GLNG and QCLNG consortia

Execution of PDA testing and Capwap analyses for 10 near-shore structures at Gladstone and Curtis Island including construction marine off-loading facilities (MOFs) and LNG loading platforms, jetties and wharves.  Open-ended steel pipe piles of up to 1.5m diameter driven with hammers of up to 25T ram weight.  Contribution to design of tension and compression tests using bi-directional load cells.  Comparison of dynamic and static load testing.  Expert advice in regard to hammer selection and construction issues.

Cashin Quay Lyttelton NZ; Opus, Port of Lyttelton

Resolving technical issues associated with the remediation of Cashin Quay which serves as the port of Christchurch, New Zealand. The first stage of works at Berth 2 (CQ2) required about 250 driven steel tubes as foundation piles for the new wharf.  Design and Driveability Analysis, Constructability Advice, PDA Testing and CAPWAP, Pile Driving Monitoring (PDM), Pile Verification and Signoff

Cape Lambert B Jetty and Wharf; Western Australia; Rio Tinto

Geotechnical and critical pile testing review of Phase 1 piling works.  Pile design, pile testing and sign-off for Phase 2 piling.  Rationalization of 100% Phase 1 testing program.  Development of foundation models for design of Phase 2 piles.  Development of innovative procedures and proforma for both tested and untested piles to allow for near-real-time sign-off on compression, tension and lateral load cases.

Cape Lambert Tug Pens; Western Australia; McConnell Dowell for Rio Tinto

The foundations were steel tubes driven to shallow hard rock with tension rock sockets.  Development of construction control methods to minimize the possibility of pile toe buckling which would otherwise prevent subsequent drilling of the tension socket.  Design of rock sockets using in-house Rocket TM software.  Development of down-the-hole-hammer socket logging methods.  On site and remote supervision of 24 hour construction cycle for evaluation of socket, real time socket design and pile sign-off.

Wiggins Island Coal Export Terminal; Wharf Dolphin and Jetty; Monadelphous Muhibbah Marine

Development of stratigraphic longitudinal sections and assignment of soil and rock strength profiles for sizing of piling hammer and evaluation of pile toe levels and steel quantities.  Remote dynamic pile testing and Capwap analysis of contract piles.  Technical and commercial assistance to the client.

5km sheet-pile LNG pipe trench, The Narrows Crossing Gladstone; McConnell Dowell for QCLNG

Redesign of 5000m length of temporary sheet-pile wall for LNG pipeline.  Development of strength profiles from combination of widely spaced bores, CPTs and multi-array surface wave analysis.  Evaluation of driveability by correlation of PDM (Pile Driving Monitor) measurements of pile frequency, amplitude and penetration rates with GRLWEAP. Wallap and 2D Plaxis analysis of critical wall sections at multiple construction stages.

Ipswich Motorway Upgrade, Dinmore to Goodna; Piling Contractors for Queensland Main Roads (now TMRQ)

Technical support for a claim regarding buckling of steel pipe pile toes in foundations containing cobbles.  A unique Monte Carlo statistical analysis was undertaken to compute the risk of local pile overstress based on simulation of pile diameter and wall thickness, cobble size and soil grading.

Quantum Project (now Port Hedland Outer Harbour); McConnell Dowell - Geosea JV for BHP

Tender stage support for bid team development of stratigraphic modelling, assessment of engineering properties and variability, evaluation of pile toe levels for pile length and steel supply evaluation; risk analysis of refusal in upper cemented layers.  Critical specification review and recommended amendments.  Hammer evaluation and driveability analysis.

Townsville Port Access Road – Ross River Bridge; Aecom and Piling Contractors - for Queensland Main Roads

Specialist advice to Aecom on foundation design, foundation installation and approval.  Special issues related to evaluation of setup, internal shaft resistance on pipe piles; tension stresses in prestressed concrete piles, and the acceptability of pile caps with piles of significantly varying toe levels.  Strategies were developed to control tension stresses by limitation of pile set and planned replacement of pile cushions.  Pile caps with different pile lengths were modelled using Plaxis 3D to establish if there were adverse effects on pile stresses or cap behaviour.

Kempsey Bypass McLeay River Floodplain bridge; Abigroup for NSW Roads and Maritime Services

Twin bridges with 93 piers and 2.45km long.  Involvement in initial conceptual foundation design.  Subsequent PDA Testing and analysis, and PDM monitoring of every pile for pile sign-off.  Challenging and diverse foundation conditions including buried glacial trenches with steep side slopes which resulted in damage to the toes of some piles.  Damaged piles were assessed, and the predicted damage correctly verified by pile extraction.  Analyses included sizing of vibratory hammer requirements to extract steel tubes of over 40m length.

M80 Upgrade Tilburn Rd to Furlong Rd at Sunshine Tip; Leighton Contractors for VicRoads

Twin bridges with 93 piers and 2.45km long.  Involvement in initial conceptual foundation design.  Subsequent PDA Testing and analysis, and PDM monitoring of every pile for pile sign-off.  Challenging and diverse foundation conditions including buried glacial trenches with steep side slopes which resulted in damage to the toes of some piles.  Damaged piles were assessed, and the predicted damage correctly verified by pile extraction.  Analyses included sizing of vibratory hammer requirements to extract steel tubes of over 40m length.

¹ generally as Technical Director, FSG