CASE STUDY: DESIGN, INSTALLATION AND QUALITY ASSURANCE TESTING OFHIGH CAPACITY SOCKETED PILES IN A COMPLEX GEOLOGIC ENVIRONMENT

摘要

Construction of a new ship dock at a major Philadelphia area refinery requiredgeotechnical design and field consultation. The new dock; which consists of asystem of mooring dolphins and platforms; will be capable of docking the StenaV-MAX Oil Tanker (V-MAX). The 1100 ft long V-MAX is currently the largesttanker to travel the Delaware River and will induce significant lateral loads on thenew ship dock. Lateral loads induced on the dock will be resisted by over 200pipe piles installed on a batter. The piles used for support of the dock included 20and 30 in. diameter reinforced; concrete filled pipe piles. Complete constructionof each pile included driving of the pile to the design ultimate capacity; flushingthe pipe pile casing clean of overburden materials followed by drilling rocksockets into the underlying Wissahickon Formation. Variations in depth tobedrock; rock quality and degree of weathering and presence of very hardquartzite lenses created a complex geologic environment that presentedchallenges for the pile/rock socket design and installation. The design of the pilesystem; installation methods; QA/QC and testing (Pile Dynamic Analysis); as wellas the challenges that were encountered through the duration of the project arepresented and discussed.