Offshore Pile Driving Foundations monitored by PDA® Test at

Puente Nigale

Rojas, Maiker
Engineer at Odebrecht Venezuela S.A.
Miquilena, Irene
Engineer at Odebrecht Venezuela S.A.
Souza, Antonio
Engineer at Odebrecht Venezuela S.A.

ABSTRACT: This document presents PDA Tests performed as part of monitoring and con-
trol of Pile Driving at Offshore Foundations in the construction of Puente Nigale. The project
consists of a 12 km cable stayed link for both road and rail traffic located in Maracaibo, eastern
Venezuela and will support the existing 8.6 km link, Puente General Rafael Urdaneta by releas-
ing traffic load. The design proposes a curved alignment with two separated but parallel super-
structures, carrying road and rail respectively. The foundations and pile caps will be common
for both superstructures. At the present time, 9 piles with an inner diameter of 1.8m were moni-
tored as part of control of driving activities and verification of capacities using Impact Hydrau-
lic hammers obtaining a set-up of 1.14 for all piles after PDA Test. Driving equipment was ver-
ified by reaching bearing capacity and minimum tip level established by designers.

1 INTRODUCTION
1.1 Project description
The urban and industrial growth in the area, the need to establish new routes and the idea of re-
leasing traffic load from the original bridge engender the construction of a second overcrossing
on the Maracaibo strait, Puente Nigale.
The project consists of a 12 km link for both road and rail traffic connecting Santa Cruz de
Mara on the east coast to Punta de Palmas on the west coast, subdivided in two viaducts, a low
level bridge, two elevated bridges and cable-stayed bridge over the Maracaibo lake navigation
channel.
In case of the Foundations, piers with 18, 21 and more piles will be built to support road and
rail superstructures. In total, 128 piers will be executed in offshore conditions, including two
pylons at both sides of navigation channel. It was planned the execution of the foundations lo-
cated approximately at center of alignment, P54 to P64, at the Low Level Bridge section. Those
piers require driving 21 steel pipe piles with 1.8 meters of inner diameter. The target depth
fixed as tip level ranging from -43 to -65 meters below Medium Level of Maracaibo's Lake
(MLMN). The minimum Pile Capacity in compression for these piles is 27 MN according to the
geotechnical design report submitted by designer.

1.2 Geotechnical conditions

At the pier locations (P54 and P55) were executed 4 boreholes (two per Pier) and two CPTu
Tests. Information available at submission of Geotechnical report included all data from basic
lab tests and SPT Tests executed in the geotechnical boreholes. SPT Test were executed each
1.5 m and disturbed or undisturbed (according to the type of soil founded) samples were recov-
ered between SPT's for laboratory tests. Design Profiles at P54 consist of approximately of 4.0
meters of silt with sand (ML) just below the seabed level followed by 21 meters of normally
consolidated lean clay (CL1). This is underlain by a 6 meter thick layer of fat clay (CH). From
approx. 29 below the seabed level decomposed and soft siltstone (CL3/CL4) has been encoun-
tered. The siltstone has been assumed continued to lower depth. At P55 were found approx. 4
meters of silt with sand (ML) just below the seabed level, followed by 18 meters of normally
consolidated lean clay (CL1). This is underlain by a 5.5 meter thick layer of fat clay (CH) and
4.5 meter thick layer of dense to very dense silt sand (SM3). From approx. 32 below the seabed
level decomposed and soft siltstone/claystone (CL3/CL4) has been encountered. The silt-
stone/claystone has been assumed to continue to great depth. Idealized Geotechnical Profile at
these Piles is show in figure below.

Figure 1. Idealized Geotechnical Profile from P54 to P64

Calculations of Axial Bearing Capacity were carried out with CPTu data by direct CPT
methods (AASHTO, 2010) and, as part of construction specifications, PDA Test was defined as
a verification technique of End Bearing Capacity, including CAPWAP analysis after collection
of data on site.

1.3 Piles design

Piles for the section P54-P64 consist in driven ID 1.8 m steel piles up to 65m long and a wall
thickness varying between 25.4 mm and 31.75 mm. In all piles, the uppermost 9.3m are filled
with a reinforced concrete, as shown in Fig. 2.
In order to verify the design, the uppermost 5 m of the piles are assumed as a concrete cross
section alone, and in this area all load is taken by the concrete and reinforcement. A transition
zone with shear rings is placed from level -3.5 m below pile cap and 4 m further down. In the
transition zone either the reinforced concrete or the steel pile is assumed to provide the neces-
sary structural capacity. The full steel capacity is verified from -5m and down. At level -9.0 m
the pile is assumed as a steel cylinder cross section alone and therefore all loads in this area are
taken by the construction steel.
Figure 2. Layout of design approach used by the designer.
(Frederiksen, 2013)

Design states that, in general, the highest utilizations are found in the corner piles and their
nearest neighboring piles, as indicated in the figure below.

Figure 3. Plan view of a pile cap. Darker piles have the highest
utilizations, meanwhile lighter ones have lowers.

1.4 PDA Test

Pile Dynamic Analysis is a well-known technique for bearing capacity verification of a wide
range of piles (concrete, steel, wood) and the guidelines for its execution are established in
ASTM D 4945. In Nigale fixed link were implemented the methodology established by ASTM
D 4945 - 12 with execution of dynamic test with equipment provided by PDI, Inc: Pile Driving
Analyzer or PDA. The devices consists in a PDA model PAX-8 which is capable of carried out
4 and 8 channels tests with End Of Driving (EOD), End Of Restrike (EOR) and Beginning Of
Restrike (BOR) monitoring. In total, 19 EOD monitoring were executed and 18 tests as
EOR/BOR as well.
2 INITIAL DRIVING RESPONSE – EOD TEST

As result of a detailed analysis of geotechnical conditions on site, a 3 phases of installation

were identified: 1) a self-weight installation of piles (because until 20 to 28 meters of depth
SPT N60 values reported by geotechnical boreholes were less than 10) retaining a 12 meters
section per time on the template installed on the barge; 2) a vibratory driving with a PTC 100
unit, generally this driving phase reached 32 to 33 meters of depth and; 3) Impact hammer with
a single hydraulic unit (CG300 - CGL 590) until target depth (43 to 45 meters into the ground).
At beginning of activities, a hydraulic hammer BSP CG300 with 20 Tons of drop weight was
used. Nevertheless, it was recommended by designer the use of a unit with at least 500 KN-m as
minimum capacity for driving at this site. In case of BSP CG300 a total of 294 KN-m could be
applied as maximum capacity noticed by provider BSP in their technical brochures. Motivation
for using that unit was due to unavailability of a larger one (CGL 590, ordered later by Ode-
brecht) as recommended by design reports and technical notes.
As result of this issue, in the first stage of offshore driving works, an 'activated capacity' us-
ing CG 300 hammer were reported after CAPWAP analysis reported by GRL Engineers (Hus-
sein et al, 2002). This condition is reached when a hard driving with an underestimated unit
(hydraulic or other) is used as driving equipment. In those CAPWAP reports a superimposed
capacity of 22.5 MN (as minimum on Pile 3 at P54) to 26.4 MN (as maximum at Pile 10 on Pier
55) were reported, which recommended to use a bigger unit (i.e. CGL590) for final driving and
further verification of end bearing capacity after a BOR monitoring of piles.
Figures 4 and 5 show comparisons of the EOD and BOR using the available impact hammers
on-site after recommendations from design team in order to improve performance of the ham-
mers.

Figure 4. Comparison of signals from EOD monitoring with

both driving equipment (CG300 upper and CGL5900 lower) at
pier P54.
Figure 5. Comparison of signals from BOR monitoring with
both driving equipment (CG300 upper and CGL590 lower) at
pier P54.

3 PERFORMANCE OF DRIVING EQUIPMENT

After completion of driving with a major unit, CGL 590 from BSP with a 590 kN-m as maxi-
mum energy could be applied per stroke; capacities higher than 27 MN were reached. In gen-
eral, according to the maximum energy rated by each unit (CG300 and CGL 590) more than
50% of time the energy applied exceeded 70% of maximum energy for both hammers as shown
in figures 6 and 7. The frequency distribution analysis from all monitoring recorded by PDA
model PAX-8 is expressed in percentage and obtained by dividing the load transferred to the
hammer and bearing capacity of the hammer.

Figure 6. ETR – Energy Transfer Ratio for unit CG300.

Figure 7. ETR – Energy Transfer Ratio for unit CGL590.

4 ANALYSIS OF PILE SET UP

After complete installation, a setup phenomenon was analyzed. In case of piles at P54 and P55,
an average value 1.14 after 8 days in average was observed. In case of piles 3 and 10 on P54
setup analysis was made with superimposed capacity as reported by CAPWAP report.
In figure 8 is shown the comparison for this values reported at piles P54 and P55.

Figure 8. Set Up and Days after EOD monitoring for Piles at

P54 and P55 (in case of Piles P54 10, P54 3 and P54 17 setup
was calculated with the ‘superimposed’ capacity)

5 CONCLUSIONS

From Pile Dynamics Test at piers 54 and 55 in offshore activities for Puente Nigale project was
found that unit CGL590 has enough capacity for mobilized total resistance established by de-
signer. The Setup factor for those piles was 1.14 after 8 days in average; those values could be
adopted at least for Piers 56, 57, 58 and 59 as references values for planning activities and con-
siderations for PDA Tests which will be performed in the piles of those piers. It is highly rec-
ommended to perform EOD and BOR monitoring at least on opposite corners of piles for each
pier as indicated by construction specifications. In the same way, is recommended increase ca-
pacity for vibratory driving, reducing the use of unit CGL590 consequently.
6 REFERENCES

AASHTO LRFD Bridge Design Specifications, 5th Edition 2010.

ASTM D 4945-12. Standard Test Method for High-Strain Dynamic Testing of Deep Founda-
tions
Frederiksen, A. 2013. CW-GN-RE-9-01062 Puente Nigale, Design Report – Low Level Bridge,
P54-P64. Denmark.
Hussein, M.H., Sharp, M. & Knight, W.F. 2002. The Use of Superposition for Evaluating Pile
Capacity. Deep Foundations 2002, An International Perspective on Theory, Design, Con-
struction, and Performance, Geotechnical Special Publication No. 116, O'Neill M. W., and
Townsend, F. C. Eds., American Society of Civil Engineers: Orlando, FL; 6-21.