Construction Technology of Cast-in-Situ

Bored Pile in Deep Water

Dr. Liu Hui
Sichuan College of Architectural Technology, Deyang,
Sichuan, 618000, China
e-mail: xglyz@sina.com

ABSTRACT
Construction of large diameter pile (D=2.5m) in deep water (water-depth 42m) with cast-insitu bored pile technology is subjected heavily to wind load and tide. This paper introduces
countermeasures such as adding anchorage to the offshore platform, driving steel pipe pile
and pile casting at the location defined by forward intersection, using silt at the sea bed as
drill slurry to prevent hole collapsing, Z shape strengthening to the reinforcement cage and
hoisting it with 1 main and 3 assistant suspension points and underwater concrete pouring.
These countermeasures successfully resolve the difficulties in constructing large diameter
pile in deep water under the effect of wind and tide.

KEYWORDS:

large diameter bored pile in deep water, offshore platform, suspension

of reinforcement cage, under water concrete pouring

INTRODUCTION
Construction of cast-in-situ bored pile is a concealed work. Without proper construction
methods or adequate quality assurance measures, it is prone to various types of quality
accidents, leading to schedule delay and economic losses. This is especially true for this
project in which super-long piles with unusually large diameter were used. To address this
problem, construction organization design and construction technology for pile foundations
of this project were discussed repeatedly and adequate prevention measures were taken in
key construction process which were proved effective.
The bridge locates in the area where the maximum water depth is 42m with the elevation
of river bed varying from -1.5~42m and the maximum tidal variation is 5.4m. The terrain is a
V valley steep in east and flat in west. The stratum consists of volcaniclastic rocks of
xishantou group in late Jurassic Period, slope wash, alluvial and diluvial gravelly sand and
clay of ??, and marine mud and clay of Holocene. Southeast wind prevails in the summer
and the typhoon season is a big challenge to construction. The 2#, 3# main pier each has 6
piles, all of which are 2.5m in diameter. The longest pile is 105m (the elevation of platform
is +5m and that of the pile bottom is -100m), which is the 1# pile under 2# pier, a rarely
large diameter pile foundation in deep water. All the piles are located in the sea and
challenges as follows are encountered during the construction adopting offshore steel
operation platform: how to maintain the stability of the cantilever of the piles for the deep
water foundation construction platform, which is as long as 42m and is subjected to tide and
typhoon during construction and operation; how to carry out the construction surveying
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and precise positioning of steel pipe pile and casing driving and how to make sure the over
pressured water head stay in the casing under the influence of tide; how to meet the
requirement for a 6.5m socket length when the bedrock is granite with 120MPa bearing
capacity under a covering layers of slit, muddy clay, clay and grait containing clay.
counter measures and technology guarantee against tide and typhoon.

7000

6500

7000

7250

240

6000

6000

700

R1400

Position of drilling machine

7250

7000

Position of drilling machine

240
Steel bearing piles
120022

Steel bearing piles

120022

A
A-A
7000

6500

7000

Associated stiffening trusses [20a

Steel bearing piles
120022

Anchor cable
Steel bearing piles
120022

4000

240

Steel bearing piles

120022
Steel bearing piles
120022

-28.00m

-50.00m

Figure 1: Layout of drilling platform (unit:mm)

Anchor cable

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CONSTRUCTION TECHNOLOGY OF CAST-IN-SITU

BORED PILE IN DEEP WATER
The construction procedure of foundation pile is as follows: Construction of floating
platform for drilling hole drilling hole cleaning for the first time lowering steel
reinforcement cage hole cleaning for the second time concrete pouring integrity
testing of pile.

Construction of floating platform for drilling

(A) Design of drilling platform
The steel working platform is a multiple-function operation platform for hole drilling as
well as for concrete pouring, whose design principle is safe, practical and economical with
enough strength and rigidity as well as enough working space to satisfy the needs of
construction. The platform for pile foundation construction of main pier constitutes of steel
pipe pile truss. 2 concrete cat anchors that each weights 10T were set on each side of the
platform to maintain stability and safety under the influence of typhoon and tide. The
platforms design loads includes two 90kW percussion drills, a set of supporting equipment
2

including as air compressor and crowd load 1.5kN / m . The percussion drills weighs 200kN
each whose maximum drilling capacity reaches 3m in diameter and 120m in depth; the air
compressor weighs 150kN. See Figure 1 for the lay out of the platform.
(B) Constructing truss of the platform
Based on the actual situation on site, auxiliary piles were driven in first to set up a
working platform; then steel piles with a diameter of 1200mm and a wall thickness of 22mm
were leveled by acetylene cutting or welding; after this, joist steel was laid to form a frame;
finally, when the steel pile casing had been completed, it was connected to the platform to
enhance the overall stability of the platform. The supporting steel piles should be driven into
the clay with certain depth according to the geological condition and each pile must be
driven no less than 15.0m into the covering layer. A 100T floating crane is used for steel pile
sinkage with the assistance of vibropiling machine. During the operation, positioning guide
frame for steel tube sinking is set at the edge of a ship and 2 theodolites is used to control the
piles location and perpendicularity by forward intersection method. After that, the steel pile
can be driven when the coordinates of the piles were calculated and the positioning frame
locates at the pile points to be driven and anchored which was done by moving the floating
crane to the piers location and anchored, and then adjusting the lifting hook by tightening
and loosening the hoist. After that, the segment of steel pile is vertically suspended by 2
hooks of the floating crane and inserted into at a certain depth through the positioning frame.
Meanwhile, the location and perpendicularity of the pile is verified on the shore, if deviation
from the designed location exists, readjustment should be done with hoist. When the
positioning is complete, lowering the steel pile slowly until the bottom of the pile penetrates
into the covering soil at a certain depth under its self weight and then driven the pile to its
designed elevation by hammering of the vibropiling machine. The first segment of steel pile
is 35m long and flange is used for the piles that need extension and the connecting bolts
nuts and screw should be welded together. After the driving, the redundant part is cut to
make the piles top elevation equals and then 2I40 joist steel is used to be stringer and
distributive girder and welded together as a entirety on the piles, on the other hand, linkage
stiffening truss rods and lower chords is set transversely [ 20a and longitudinally to the steel
pipes which is later connected to the steel casing with I40 joist steel after the installation of

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the casing to ensure the construction stability of the platform and the casing. At last, 10mm
steel plate and 40mm wooden plate is laid on the top and forms drilling platform. It should
be noticed to reserve holes according to the planning of foundation piles for the convenience
of posterior steel casing signage construction.

Preparations before drilling

The steel casing is going to be set after the construction platform construction is completed.
The design elevation of the bottom of the casing is -50m which is 22m deeper than the elevation
of the river bed at -28m. The total length of the casing is 55m and weights 68.3T with 2.8m of
the inner diameter and 18mm of the wall thickness. Two layers of guiding and inhibition
measures is adopted during the casing driving with the 2 40 a joist steel of the drill platform
directly on the top of the platform as the top layer while the second layer is 4m lower with single
232 a joist steel to ensure the precision of the location of the casing. The spiral steel casing is
divided into 4 segments for extension and is lifted with two 56mm steel wire rope by the 100T
floating crane with 30m jib and the capacity of 360 degree rotating. After the driving of one
segment, it is suspended to the joist steel of the platform on four sides with reversed brackets and
the steel wire rope is removed to lift next segment for extension. In order to ensure the
impermeability of the casing during the drilling, the quality of weld joints is strictly required and
water leakage is not permitted, besides that, 4 stiffening steel plate is set circlewise with equal
intervals at the joints of the segments. During the sinking of the casing, the perpendicularity is
controlled with 2 total stations set at vertical orientations on one hand. On the other hand, the
perpendicularity can better be controlled if the casing is sinking to the mud surface at still tide by
precisely mastering the fluctuation of tide. When the casing sinks into mud by its weight and
stables, it can be driven to the design elevation with 160T shaking force generates by vibropiling
hammer with bilateral fixture. To speed up the construction progress, 2 drills is set on the
bidiagonal pile of the platform and is operated at the same time. The location of operation
platform and drills is shown in Fig.1.

Hole drilling
The bridge construction adopts percussion drill for hole boring. Due to the pile is deep in
water and its large diameter as well as complicated geological condition, thick covering layer and
long period of hole boring, it is necessary to adopt kinds of effective measures for hole collapse
prevention during the drilling[2]. The water head in the hole is kept 1.5m higher than that of
outside the hole by pumps in and outside the hole due to the fluctuation of tide outside the hole
will affect the water head in the hole,. The penetrations rate should be controlled properly, when
the drilling reaches the bottom of the casing, every time when the drill reaches 2m below the
bottom of the casing, ragstones are filled to 2m above the bottom of the casing and drills again
for three times to enhance the hole side and ensure the section at the bottom wont collapse. At
the meantime, the silt on the river bed can be used as boring slurry to prevent hole from
collapsing because of its characteristics of un-dispersion, low particle content and high viscosity.
However, with the existence of a layer of 25m clay between the bottom of the casing and heavily
weathering rock from -50m to-75m and under the influence of tide and wind, the platform and
steel casing waggles and the hole collapses when drills to the -70m during the hole drilling
process. Finally, the hole is drilled through the adoption of casing following up plan (the steel
casing follows to -70m in actual situation).Because of the collapsing, the inner part of the casing
is suspended in midair and the friction reduces, thus the following up should be done segment by
segment to avoid suddenly falling of the casing that breaks the crane jib and smashes the joist
steel on the platform during the hammering. For this purpose, reversed brackets are welded at the
four sides of the casing at the interval of 2m to limit the sinking distance and the sinking is done
segment by segment with the same procedure of the extension sinking of casing. When the hole
reaches-95m elevation which is already penetrated into weak weathering rock at the elevation of -

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93.5m and about to complete with the demanded 6.5m pile penetration depth in rock, the hole
collapses again and secondary casing following up is carried out to the -75m elevation and the
hole is complete at last.

Hole cleaning
During the concrete pouring process, the concrete in the hole would have problem of rising
and slurry mixing in if the slurry possesses excessive relative density and sand content. However,
if the slurry viscosity is excessive low, the sand particles sedimentation in the slurry will
accelerate and the hole would collapse which is not avail for wall protection and deslagging. The
thickness of slummage will reduce the bearing capacity of the pile and should be cleaned as
thorough as possible and the hole cleaning includes replacing original slurry, changing the
performance of slurry in the hole and slummage wiping out. When the hole reaches designed
elevation, the diameter, gradient, depth is checked according to the standard. After that,
deslagging is carried out by pumping with the slurry cycle system of the drill constantly while
fresh water is poured in to the hole to make the indexes of relative density, viscosity, sand content
and slummage thickness, which is 1.08, 18Pa.s, 1.5% and 100mm respectively, meet the
requirement of the code,. During the slurry replacing and hole cleaning, the water head should be
maintained to prevent hole collapsing. Hole cleaning should be done as soon as possible after the
checking, otherwise the mud bored will subside and result in difficulties of hole cleaning or even
hole collapsing.

Fabrication and suspension of steel cage

The steel cage should be suspend immediately after hole cleaning. The cage is prefabricated
on site with the length of 94.85m and weights 90T. the main reinforcement bar of the pile is
32mm in diameter and there are 168 of it in a cross section(the pile diameter is changed at 4m
above the casing, the upper segment has 96 main reinforcement bar while the lower segment has
two layer of the bar which is 168). Stiffening ring is set every 2m along the length. Z stiffening
bar is set as well, and is divided into 4 segments, each segment is about 23m and weights 22.5T
and been extended at the opening of the hole. The lower segments have lots of main bar as well
as joints, the welding speed should be accelerated to minimize the time of sinking, at the mean
time, threaded sleeve joints are used in upper segments to speed up the construction. Due to the
magnificent size and weights of one segment of the cage, it is easy to deform when lifted. In
order to prevent the generation of harmful deformation during the lifting, the floating crane is set
close to the hole to exert its maximum capacity of 100T. 4 suspension points is used, while the
main one is located at the upper end of the cage and on the top stiffening ring and strengthened
with 28mm steel plate. The other 3 assistant suspension points is set at the location where is 1/3
length to the upper and lower end and at the middle of the cage. 4 steel ropes with 56mm
diameter is fastened at the main points to satisfy the suspension force of the whole cage while the
steel rope of 32mm diameter is fastened to 3 assistant points. The cage is first horizontally lifted
and move above the sea surface by lifting the 3 assistant steel rope with the assistant hook of the
crane and then the main hook is lifted while the assistant hooks is slowly loosened, thus the
bottom of the cage is inserted into the sea and the cage should be lifted aiming at the hole
position as well as descend in the hole slightly and slowly. The descend of the cage should be
paused if there is resistance encountered until the reason is found and been dealt with, and
collisions, high lifting and rapid or forcefully descend is strictly prohibited. During the segment
jointing, the upper segment is lowered to the top stiffening ring which is 1.5m above the platform
and using the 216 joist steel to cross the cage under the suspension points of the stiffening ring
and makes the cage a fixed suspender to the steel casing, then the next segment of cage is lifted
above the hole and the main bars of the former and latter segment aligned. After that, 6 sound
pipes is set in the cage for threaded sleeve jointing (when is sound pipe is extend, the
impermeability must be ensured), when all the jointing of bars finished, spiral bars can be twined

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and the cage is lifted to remove the 2 joist steel. After that, continues to descend the cage into the
hole and gaskets of concrete cover can be welded. During the descend, forward intersection
method is also used to ensure the perpendicularity of the cage and the center position of the cage
should be maintain to prevent collisions with the wall of the hole that causes scraping and
collapsing. After extensions and descended to the designed elevation, the 6 bars which is preextended by main reinforcement bar in the cage is welded to the inner wall of the casing to
prevent falling under self weight or deviation caused by floating during the concrete pouring.
The top elevation of the cage is -2.65m which is underneath the lowest water level and is 7.65m
away from the top of the platform. Thus, when the descending is complete, the bottom of the
steel ropes for lifting is under the water and are hard to get back. To solve this problem, 2 steel
ropes of 56mm diameter is used, an end of the rope is hooked to the lifting hook while the other
end combines with the original steel rope with 3 buckles after passing through 2 suspension
points. The location of the buckles should better be above the water when the cage is descended
to the elevation for the convenience of buckles removing and the cycle use of the steel ropes.

Tremie installation and secondary hole cleaning

The inner diameter of the tremie is 30cm and each segment of it is 2.6m with the exception
of the bottom segment of 4m. water tightness test and tensile strength test of joints should be
done and the result must satisfies the requirements before the tremie is used for the first time. It
can be installed with the assistance of floating crane that is to pre-connect the tremie into 4 long
segments on the floating crane ship to shorten the descend time of the tremie on the hole. the
tremie should be at the center when entering the hole and should be prevented from movement
that may crash the cage and the tremie. The bottom of the tremie is 30-50cm above the hole base
for the convenience of opening the orifice plate ahead it. After the descend, the total length and
the bottom location of the tremie should be calculated and recorded, and then measure the depth
of the hole and the slummage thickness again, if the slummage thickness is beyond the
requirement of the code, secondary hole cleaning should be done using the tremie until the
slummage thickness meets the requirement.

Underwater concrete pouring

The pouring of underwater concrete should be carried out immediately after the secondary
3
hole cleaning. The 21#-1# piles need 550 m pumping concrete with the slump of 18~22cm,
Efficient retarding water reducing agent can be mixed in the concrete to retard the initial setting
time because of the long pouring time of 25 hours and the concrete quality needs strict control as
well. On the other hand, jamming of the convey pump line and tremie also need to be prevented.
The pile is constructed in summer, thus measures should be carried out to reduce the temperature
of the concrete entering the tremie to the greatest extent, they are: covering the grave and sand
with sun-proof plastic cloth; mixing ice with malaxation water to lower the temperature;
covering woven bag made of harl on the pumping line and watering it frequently to prevent the
concrete bonds to inner wall of the pumping line due to the excessive high temperature of the
outside wall and a sun-proof shade can be set on the entrance of the tremie.
The concrete volume should be precisely calculated when tremie method is used for concrete
pouring. First, using the funnel whose volume is a little bigger than that of bottom seal
requirement with single pouring to seal the bottom. The orifice plate ahead the tremie can only be
opened to pour the first batch of concrete when the concrete volume in the funnel reaches the
3
bottom seal requirement (13 m for this pile). At the meantime, observes the return of the slurry,
determines the tremie buried depth and verifies whether there is water in the tremie. When the
bottom seal is successful,(the tremie buried depth is 1.8~2m after the first pouring) consecutive
concrete pouring should be done until removing the tremie for the first time and then the funnel is
replaced with a smaller one and the pouring should be continuously done without interruption.
During the pouring, the concrete pouring depth and tremie buried depth should be measured at

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any time with plumb bob, the tremie buried depth is confined between 4~6m and only one
segment of tremie can be removed each time. The tremie needs to be shake up and down
frequently to check whether the concrete in it is dropping normally by observing the slurry
returning situation and then analyzes and estimates the situation in the tremie to prevent concrete
jam. If the concrete is jammed, slowly lifts the tremie moderately and then lowers the tremie
repeatedly until the concrete falls normally (the tremie buried depth should be no less than 1m
during the operation). When the pouring is adjacent to the pile top, the volume need of concrete
should be calculated to precisely control the elevation of the pile top. The pouring elevation
should be 1.5~2m higher than designed pile top elevation to ensure the pile head strength meets
the design requirement after pile cutting. After the initial set of the concrete, washes the sound
pipes with pressured water and seals the upper end to prevent jam.

CONCLUSIONS AND SUGGESTIONS

The construction of cast-in-situ bored pile is normally done underwater whose construction
process cant be seen, the projects quality and progress is influenced directly or even causes
huge economy loss if any link of the construction goes wrong. By summarizing the construction
experiences of large diameter pile in deep water, following conclusions and suggestions is made:
(A) The preparation before construction must be sufficient, the completion of design and
construction of drilling platform is the precondition and guarantee of completion of the large
diameter pile in deep water construction.
(B) Influenced by tide and wind, the platform and casing waggles, forward intersection
method is feasible for construction surveying and precisely positioning of steel pipe pile and
casing driving and steel cage suspension.
(C) In the process of percussion drilling, measures are taken to ensure the hole drilling. Such
as the water head in the hole is kept 1.5m higher than that of outside the hole by pumps in and
outside the hole; ragstones are filled at the bottom of the casing to enhance the hole wall and the
local material of slit on river bed is used as drilling slurry and so on.
Procedures of hole cleaning, tremie installation, secondary hole cleaning and concrete
pouring are very important, every step must be done carefully because any carelessness would
result in failure of the construction. According to the actual construction, following issues need
further research.
How to maintain the stability of the cantilever of the piles for the deep water foundation
construction platform, which is as long as 40m and is subjected to tide and typhoon during
construction and operation; the cantilever of piles of the operation platform for foundation in
deep water is very long and reaches 40m, it suffers influence from tide and typhoon during the
construction and running, thus the stability of them needs further research.

REFERENCES
Ding L.L., Kuang X.H., Qiao C.L. etc, Floating method in construction of platform
supported by steel pipe piles for deep water pier in Reservior Region, World
Bridges,Vol.40,No.05,pp.41-44,2012.
Fan X.M., Nong D.P. and Cao S.Y., Construction quality control for large diameter
and very long bored piles in deep water, World Bridges, Vol.41,No.05,pp.3943,2013.

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Hu,Y., Zhang J.L. and Yang E.Y., Key techniques for construction of bored piles of
Pier Z4 of main bridge of Jiangshun Bridge, Bridge Construction,
Vol.43,No.01,pp.116-121,2013.
Wang B.Y.Application of self-locking fender pile in deep water Foundation,
Journal of Railway Engineering society, Vol.29,No.03, pp.30-34,2012.
Yang S.J., The Seismic Behavior of Group-pile Foundation in Deep Water,
Electronic Journal of Geotechnical Engineering, Vol.19,No.L,pp.26792690,2014.

2014 ejge