Vibration induced settlement of a 13.5 metre railway embankment (Paper ID 989)

Peter Barlow, James P. Murphy, Greg Bridgewater

In the proceedings of: GEO2011: 64th Canadian Geotechnical Conference, 14th Pan-American Conference on Soil Mechanics and Geotechnical Engineering, 5th Pan-American Conference on Teaching and Learning of Geotechnical Engineering

Session: Embankments and Dams

ABSTRACT: TransCanada Pipelines is constructing two adjacent tank farms in central Alberta, Canada. Separating the two tank farms is a railway spur line on a 13.5 metre high railway embankment. Six interconnecting pipelines were required to cross the embankment in very close proximity. A narrow right-of-way, shallow groundwater, fine sandy soil conditions, site specific obstacles, unknowns in the embankment and very specific railway requirements created some difficult challenges for a multiple trenchless crossing solution. After a review of the available trenchless options, the guided slip bore technology was selected as it provided solutions to most of the constraints. A unique application of this technology was adopted to mitigate issues associated with saturated sand in the embankment foundation and railway requirements. Of primary concern to Canadian Pacific Railway (CPR) was the potential for vibration induced settlement as a result of the construction methodology chosen. Prior to providing the needed crossing agreement CPR set a number of requirements for settlement monitoring of the embankment. This paper provides an overview of the case history, including the results of the monitoring program and discussion of the issues related to embankment settlement. PRESENTACIONES TÉCNICAS TransCanada Pipelines está construyendo dos grupos de tanques para el almacenamiento comercial de petróleo (gas) en la región central de Alberta, Canadá. Separando los dos grupos de tanques se encuentra una pequeña vía de ferrocarril la cual está sobre un terraplén 13.5m de alto. La obra incluye la construcción de seis ductos de interconexión a través de este terraplén. Sin embargo, las condiciones encontradas en campo como el nivel freático superficial, suelo arenoso fino, desconocimiento de las propiedades del terraplén y requisitos específicos de la vía del ferrocarril, crearon grandes desafíos para proporcionar una solución de cruzamientos múltiples sin uso de zanjas. Después de una revisión de las soluciones disponibles se selecciono la tecnología de perforación dirigida (guided slip bore), ya que eta proporcionaba las repuestas para la mayoría de las limitaciones encontradas en el sitio. La principal preocupación de la compañía Canadian Pacific Railway (CPR), era los posibles asentamientos por vibración del terraplén como resultado de la metodología de construcción seleccionada. Previo al otorgamiento del contrato de construcción, CPR estableció un número de requisitos para el monitoreo de asentamientos en el terraplén. Este artículo presenta un resumen de este caso, incluyendo los resultados del programa de monitoreo y una discusión de asentamientos en el terraplén.

Access this article:
Canadian Geotechnical Society members can access to this article, along with all other Canadian Geotechnical Conference proceedings, in the Member Area. Conference proceedings are also available in many libraries.

Cite this article:
Peter Barlow; James P. Murphy; Greg Bridgewater (2011) Vibration induced settlement of a 13.5 metre railway embankment (Paper ID 989) in GEO2011. Ottawa, Ontario: Canadian Geotechnical Society.

@article{GEO11Paper989,author = Peter Barlow; James P. Murphy; Greg Bridgewater ,title = Vibration induced settlement of a 13.5 metre railway embankment (Paper ID 989),year = 2011}