GEOTILL Engineering (www.geotill.com) is Industry leading provider of Specialty Deep Foundations (drilled shafts, augercast piles, driven piling), Ground Improvement (soil-cement columns, vibro stone columns, compaction grouting, etc.), and Earth Retention Systems (cantilever soldier pile retaining walls, secant pile shoring, slurry walls, tie backs, etc.) throughout the United States on Commercial, Industrial, Electrical Transmission, Heavy Highway, and Heavy Civil type construction projects. Value Engineering and Design-Build Turnkey Solutions for any type of soil, loading, or limited access condition. Geotill has six locations Indiana, Illinois, Michigan, Ohio, Kentucky and Missouri.

1. Pile Driving Problems and
Solutions
ASCE Indiana State Section 2014 Annual Meeting
4/15/2013
Malek Smadi, Ph.D., P.E.
Principal Engineer - GEOTILL - Fishers, Indiana
msmadi@geotill.com - www.geotill.com

2. CONTENTS
1. Objectives
2. Piles With Blow Count Above Minimum Pile Penetration Requirements.
3. Piles Driving Significantly Deeper Than Estimated.
4. Abrupt Change or Decrease in Blow Counts for Bearing Piles.
5. Lateral Movement of Previously Installed Piles When Driving New Piles.
6. Piles Driving Out of Alignment.
7. Pile Obstructions at Depth.
8. Pile damage
9. Steel Pile Head Deforms
10. Higher Blow Count than Expected.
11. Lower Blow Count than Expected.
13. Case Histories
a. NFS RR Over SR 331
b. SR 13 Over Elkhart River
c. CR 150 East
d. I80/94 over S.R. 912
e. U.S. 12 over Grand
Calumet River

3. Objective
 Improve
understanding of
driven pile design and
construction.
 Understand the
importance of
geotechnical
investigations, design,
and the plans and
specifications.
 Educate constructors
and designers about
common issues so
that good foundation
construction practices
are followed.
 To achieve quality
assurance.

4. Keys to Success
 Subsurface investigation
 Design Considerations
 Knowledge of construction techniques
 Design for constructability and reliability
 Appropriate specifications
 Quality assurance

5. Subsurface Investigations
 The best practice to reduce the risk of
construction problems is early recognition of
geotechnical problems during design stage and
designing accordingly.
 Perform an adequate subsurface investigation
in advance of final design.

6. SPT- Errors & Omissions
 Overburden effect
 Improper seating of sampler at bottom of
hole
 Inadequate cleaning of loose material at
the bottom of hole
 Balance hydrostatic pressures inside and
outside the borehole.
 Operator Errors
 Dilatant soils causes

7. Subsurface Investigations

8. Hammer classification chart

9. Hammer classification chart
Hand Held
Pile Driver

10. Minimum Pile Penetration Requirements
 Check if driving system is matched to the pile
 If no obvious problems are found, dynamic
measurements should be made to determine if
it is driving system or soil behavior related
 Driving system problems could include pre-
ignition, low hammer efficiency, or soft cushion
 Soil problems could include higher soil strength
than anticipated, temporarily increased soil
resistance with later relaxation (required
restrike to check), large soil quakes, or high
soil damping

11. Piles Driving Significantly Deeper Than Estimated
 Soil resistance at the time of driving could be
lower than anticipated or driving system
performance is better than anticipated
 Perform restrike tests after an appropriate
waiting period to evaluate soil strength change
 If the ultimate capacity based on restrike blow
count is still low, check drive system
performance and restrike capacity with
dynamic measurements
 Contact the structural engineer/designer for
recommended change
I-465 & I-65
Bridge
Indianapolis

12. Blow Count Significantly Lower than Expected
 Review soil borings
 If soil borings do not indicate soft
layers, pile may be damaged
below grade
 If the pile was spliced, re-evaluate
splice detail and field procedures
for possible splice failure
Recent INDOT
Splices

13. Abrupt Change or Decrease in Blow Counts for Bearing
Piles
 If borings do not indicate weathered profile above
bedrock/bearing layer, then pile toe damage is likely
 For piles that allow internal inspection, reflect light to
the pile toe and tape the length inside the pile for
indications of toe damage
 For piles that cannot be internally inspected,
dynamic measurements could be made to evaluate
problem or pile extraction could be considered
Failed Piles I-69
over Hurricane
Creek

14. Lateral Movement of Previously Installed Piles When
Driving New Piles
 Pile movements likely due to
soil displacement from adjacent
pile driving
 Possible solutions include:
 Re-driving of installed piles
 Change in sequence of pile
installation
 Predrilling of pile locations to
reduce ground movements
 Lateral pile movements could
also result from adjacent slope
failure
County Road 150 East

15. Lateral Movement of Previously Installed Piles When
Driving New Piles
 Lateral pile
movements
could also
result from
adjacent slope
failure
Toll Road I-90 adjacent
to Calumet River

16. Piles Driving Out of Alignment
 Piles may be moving out
of alignment tolerance due
to hammer-pile alignment
control or due to soil
conditions
 If due to poor hammer-pile
alignment control, a pile
gate, template or fixed
lead system may improve
the ability to maintain
alignment tolerance
 Soil conditions such as
near surface obstructions
or steeply sloping bedrock
having minimal
overburden material may
prevent tolerance from
being met

17. Pile Obstructions at Depth
 If deep obstructions are
encountered contact the
engineer for remedial
design
 Ultimate capacity of piles
hitting obstructions
should be reduced based
upon pile damage
potential and soil matrix
support characteristics
 Additional piles may be
necessary

18. Steel Pile Head Deforms
 Check helmet
size/shape
 Check steel strength
 Check evenness of
the pile head
 determine pile head
stress. If calculated
stress is high, reduce
hammer energy
(stroke) for low blow
counts; for high blow
counts, different
hammer or pile type
may be required
NFS RR Over SR 331

19. Pay Attention to Scour Depth

20. Verifying High Capacity Piles with Large Diameter
54-inch Pipe Piles with welded shoes

21. Verifying High Capacity Piles with Large Diameter
Pile driving to install 8-ft-diameter test pile at Stony Creek Bridge

22. Verifying High Capacity Piles with Large Diameter

23. Verifying High Capacity Piles with Large Diameter
 For pier 6, which is northern pier for the
main truss on Milton-Madison, the
contractor proposed to 36" diameter by 7/8"
thick steel open pipe pile
 Due the size of pile and loading, it was
requested from the contractor to perform
static load test or statnamic test instead of
PDA
Milton-Madison Bridge

24. Questions ?
Dr. Malek Smadi, P.E.
Principal Engineer - GEOTILL
Fishers, Indiana
msmadi@geotill.com
www.geotill.com