Pile Driving Effects on a Steel Truss Railway Bridge During Rehabilitation

Jon Osback

In the proceedings of GeoSt. John's 2019: 72nd Canadian Geotechnical Conference

Session: Pile Foundations

ABSTRACT: This paper summarizes the performance of a steel truss railway bridge near Saskatoon, SK, which remained in service during pile driving for rehabilitation. Over 500 H piles were driven to approximately 8 m for existing piers, and 11 m for new piers, over an approximate one-month timeline. Survey, tilt loggers, and vibration monitoring were used to monitor the lateral deflection and accelerations of the structure. Effects on the structure from pile driving into the very hard glacial till foundation soil is discussed. WEAP analysis was conducted to estimate termination criteria and driving hammer performance. Pile Dynamic Analyzer (PDA) testing was conducted on 10% of the piles, with resistances measured as high as 60% more than the design ultimate resistance. Hypotheses regarding the discrepancy between design and measured resistance are presented.

RÉSUMÉ: est resté en service pendant le battage de pieux en vue de sa réhabilitation. Plus de 500 piles H ont été installées sur une distance d'environ 8 m pour les piles existantes et de 11 m pour les nouvelles, sur une période d'environ un mois. Des levés, des enregistreurs d'inclinaison et une surveillance des vibrations ont été utilisés pour surveiller la déviation latérale et les accélérations de la structure. Les effets sur la structure du battage de pieux dans le très dur sol de fondation glaciaire sont discutés. t les performances du marteau. la résistance mesurée sont présentées. 1. INTRODUCTION 1.1 Background The Canadian National Railway (CN) crosses the South Saskatchewan River at Mile 60.8 on the Aberdeen Subdivision approximately 7.5 kilometers east of Warman, SK, (Figure 1) on a streel truss bridge founded on concrete piers and timber piles. The bridge was over 100 years old and was scheduled for rehabilitation, with construction starting in the fall of 2017, and scheduled for completion in summer of 2019. In total, rehabilitation included the installation of over 500 driven H section steel piles as foundation support to retrofit existing piers for increased resistance, and for construction of new piers. Information in this paper is based on the work completed on the western portion of the bridge, and examines the predicted performance of the new piles based on Wave Equation Analysis of Pile driving (WEAP), compared to the as-constructed resistance of the piles measured by PDA testing, and discusses the observed effects on the bridge as a result of the pile driving. Figure 1 Project location

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Cite this article:
Jon Osback (2019) Pile Driving Effects on a Steel Truss Railway Bridge During Rehabilitation in GEO2019. Ottawa, Ontario: Canadian Geotechnical Society.

@article{Geo2019Paper174,author = Jon Osback,title = Pile Driving Effects on a Steel Truss Railway Bridge During Rehabilitation ,year = 2019}