Standing Committee on Concrete Technology

Annual Concrete Seminar 2007

2005 Gammon Construction Limited. All Rights Reserved

High Workability Concrete for

Bored Pile Construction

CC Wai, Alan Wan

Gammon Construction Limited

2006 Gammon Construction Limited. All Rights Reserved.

Sequence of Work in Bored Pile Construction

Sun

Mon

Tue

Wed

2006 Gammon Construction Limited. All Rights Reserved.

Week 1

Fri

Sat

Excavation

Week 2

Week 3

Thu

Rock Drilling

Excavation

Rock Drilling

Airlifting

Cage

Concrete

2006 Gammon Construction Limited. All Rights Reserved.

Presentation Scope

Method of Concreting Bored Pile

Problems and Defects

2006 Gammon Construction Limited. All Rights Reserved.

Deficiencies in Current Practice

Proactive Approach
The Way Forward

2006 Gammon Construction Limited. All Rights Reserved.

Concreting of Bored Pile

General Setup

Concrete
Truck

Skip
Concreting
Platform

2006 Gammon Construction Limited. All Rights Reserved.

Ramp

Tremie
Pipe

Concrete

Stages in Bored Pile Concreting

Extract Tremie Pipe

Tremie
Pipe

Extract Temporary Casing

Drop in
Concrete
Head

2006 Gammon Construction Limited. All Rights Reserved.

Temporary
Casing

(1)

Concrete
Overbreak

(2)

(3)

(4)

2006 Gammon Construction Limited. All Rights Reserved.

Concrete

Cement
Grout

QA / QC

Slump tests / Flow table

Check temperature ( 32o)

2006 Gammon Construction Limited. All Rights Reserved.

Cube samples to determine concrete

strength

10

2006 Gammon Construction Limited. All Rights Reserved.

Concreting Takes Many Hours

11

12:00
14:00

21:00
18:00

Concreting Time Varies With Pile Length

2006 Gammon Construction Limited. All Rights Reserved.

Time (hours)

30

12

25

20

15

10

20

40

60

Pile Length (m)

80

100

2006 Gammon Construction Limited. All Rights Reserved.

Slump

Slump Varies With Time

13

Time

Common Problems Encountered

Temporary casing cannot be withdrawn

Tremie pipe cannot be withdrawn

2006 Gammon Construction Limited. All Rights Reserved.

Blocked tremie pipe

14

Reinforcement cage rides up with

temporary casing

2006 Gammon Construction Limited. All Rights Reserved.

Defects

15

2006 Gammon Construction Limited. All Rights Reserved.

Honeycomb

16

Reduced workability affects self compaction

2006 Gammon Construction Limited. All Rights Reserved.

Air Voids

17

Entrapped Air Inside Concrete During Pouring

2006 Gammon Construction Limited. All Rights Reserved.

Air
Voids

18

(1)

(2)

(3)

2006 Gammon Construction Limited. All Rights Reserved.

Segregated Concrete

19

Additive quantity needs fine-tuning

Remedial Actions

Grouting
High pressure water jet to remove weak

concrete, followed by pressure grouting

2006 Gammon Construction Limited. All Rights Reserved.

Stitched pile

20

Additional pile

2006 Gammon Construction Limited. All Rights Reserved.

Deficiencies in Current
Practice

21

First In . Last Out

1*
2

2006 Gammon Construction Limited. All Rights Reserved.

22

18
17
16
* Indicate order
of truckload

First few
truckloads
need to
remain
workable
throughout
concreting

Deficiencies in Current Practice

Large piles / deep piles mean large

concrete volume
Specification / Contract Document

2006 Gammon Construction Limited. All Rights Reserved.

Single slump value specified on drawing

Workability vs time not considered
Lack of flexibility in interpretation

23

Quality control

Need to control consistency in material

properties

The Proactive Approach

Need to Consider ..
Specification
Concrete volume (related to pile size
and depth)
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Site constraints (physical or

24

environmental restrictions)

Site location (travel time to site from

batching plant)

Route to Pile Acceptance

Pile
Acceptance

2006 Gammon Construction Limited. All Rights Reserved.

Concrete
Performance

25

Time

Concrete
Volume

Site
Constraints

Material
Consistency

Construction

Procedure

SUCCESS STORY

Hong Kong Shenzhen Western Corridor

2006 Gammon Construction Limited. All Rights Reserved.

Delivery
~ 3 hours

26

Grade 45/20
Designed slump
200mm
Workability 5 hours

SUCCESS STORY

Hong Kong Shenzhen Western Corridor

Supplier formulated a special concrete mix

with enhanced workability

2006 Gammon Construction Limited. All Rights Reserved.

Engineer relaxed concreting time to 5 hours

27

Contractor checked workability prior to

pouring
Side-effect : minor segregation, need to pour
additional concrete to avoid undercasting

2006 Gammon Construction Limited. All Rights Reserved.

Way Forward

28

Concrete Triangle

Constructability
Designer

2006 Gammon Construction Limited. All Rights Reserved.

Consistency

29

Concrete
Supplier

Concrete Quality
/ Performance

Slump
Retention

Contractor

2006 Gammon Construction Limited. All Rights Reserved.

The End

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