Proceeding of PILE 2017, ISBN 978-979-15020-4-7

Bali - Indonesia, September 26 – 27, 2017

INFLUENCE OF BOREHOLE OPENING TIME TO THE

REDUCTION OF BEARING CAPACITY FOR BORED PILE IN
JAKARTA CLAYEY SUBSOIL

Tofan Louw Tanicho

PT. Pondasi Kisokon Raya
Graduate Student
Universitas Katolik Parahyangan
tofantan@gmail.com

ABSTRACT: Jakarta as the capital city of Indonesia is one of the developed cities in the world. Nowadays, Jakarta
has experienced a significant development with many high rise building projects. Generally, high rise buildings
in Jakarta adopt pile foundations to accommodate heavy structural loads. Bored piles are one of the foundation
systems, which are commonly used for high rise buildings.
This paper presents the behavior of bored piles in a construction of high rise building at Jalan Jendral Sudirman,
South Jakarta. The diameter of bored pile is 1200mm with effective length of 40 to 50m installed in the ground
with major subsoil possessing high Plasticity Index of 30 to 60%. The design load of pile is 850 and 1000 ton for
40 and 50m piles, respectively. The expected pile bearing capacity is 2500 to 3000 ton.
Long construction times were experienced for several test piles installed in the initial construction period due
to several factors. The long borehole opening times caused softening of the high plasticity subso il and resulted
in poor performance of the test piles with bearing capacities of 1000 to 1800 ton, which are significantly less
than the expected design values. Visual examination by soaking soil samples taken from several depths in water
confirmed the softening behavior of the subsoil.
Further test piles installed with short borehole opening time of less than 12 hours showed satisfactory
performance with bearing capacity meeting the design value. Therefore, limiting borehole opening times in the
construction of bored piles is necessary to prevent softening of high plasticity clay that may cause the decrease
of bearing capacities.

Keywords: bored pile, construction time, softening, bearing capacity

INTRODUCTION

Bored pile foundations are the common foundation systems that were adopted for high rise
buildings to accommodate heavy structural loads. The bearing capacity of pile for a given ground
condition is generally controlled by the pile diameter and length. Long pile is expected to produce
larger bearing capacity with accumulated skin friction larger than that for short pile.
However, in one of high rise building project at Jalan Jendral Sudirman, the long bored pile
requires longer installation time that automatically exposing the borehole opening for longer time.
The long borehole opening time may possibly trigger the softening of the subsoil along the shaft,
i.e., the strength deterioration in high plasticity clay. Thus, the skin frictions will reduce due to the
softening and resulting in smaller bearing capacity for the bored pile.

D3-1
D3-2

PROJECT AND SUBSOIL CONDITIONS

The project that was used in the discussion for this paper is located at Jalan Jendral Sudirman,
Jakarta as shown in Figure 1. The project occupies a land of approximately 65 x 100m. Schematically,
the development consists of 40 story tower with 5-story podium and 6-level basement. The project
used the bored pile foundation for the foundations systems. The diameter of bored pile is 1200mm
with design loads of 850 and 1000 ton for the piles in the podium and tower areas, respectively.
The effective lengths of bored piles are 40m for podium area and 50m for tower area, installed
from the cut off levels at 18.5 and 20m below the existing ground surface in podium area tower
areas, respectively. Figure 2 shows the layout of the bored piles.

Figure 1. Poject Location

Figure 2. Layout of Site Project

 D3-3

In general, the subsoil at the site can be divided into 3 zones. Zone-1 is the upper subzone that
consists of medium to stiff clay. Underneath Zone-1 is the competent Zone-2 that consists of hard
clay and very dense sand. The bottom Zone-3 to the final depth of soil investigation consists of stiff
to hard clay. Figure 3 shows the typical soil profile at site.

Figure 3. Typical Soil Profile at Site

Figure 4 shows the soil classification Plasticity Chart according to ASTM. As shown in the Figure,
the clayey subsoil in Zone-2 is classified to lean clay (CL) with plasticity index of 20%, and subsoil
in Zone-3 is classified as fat clay (CH) with plasticity index generally ranging from 30 to 60%.

Figure 4. Soil Classification by Plasticity Chart (PIASTM)

D3-4

PERFORMANCES OF PILE LOADING TESTS

There were 5 test piles originally assigned for static loading tests. Two of them behave
satisfactorily while the other three failed at the ultimate loads that were unreasonably small
compared to the theoretical design values. A simple slaking test conducted later suggested that
the long borehole opening time was the main reason for the anomaly. Additional three test piles
constructed with limiting borehole opening time successfully confirmed the design loads. The
results of the test piles were discussed in the following sections.

RESULTS OF ORIGINAL TEST PILES

Table 1 summarizes the results of the 5 test piles originally assigned for the project. As shown
in the table, the piles with the long borehole opening times (TP-1 and TP-3) failed at the maximum
applied load, which was much smaller than the expected theoretical ultimate load and the piles
kept on settling in the continuous jacking under the constant maximum applied load. TP-4 with
long borehole opening time also shows large pile head settlement under the maximum applied
load and the extrapolated ultimate load was smaller than the expected theoretical value. The test
piles installed with a reasonably borehole opening time show satisfactory result with extrapolated
ultimate load meeting the expected theoretical value. Figures 5 and 6 shows the typical results of
loading tests of the failed pile and passed pile, respectively. Figure 7 compares the load-settlement
curves and the extrapolation of all the test piles.
The borehole opening time refers to the end of the boring process up to the starting of
concreting. The opening time depends on the borehole cleaning process, rebar installation,
lowering of tremie pipe, waiting time for concrete supply in heavy traffic condition in Jakarta, and
breakdown of constriction equipment.

Table 1 Results of Originally Assigned Compression Test Pile

Theoretical
Ultimate
Borehole Test Pile Performance
Effective Load
Opening Time (kN)
Test Pile
during
Pile No. Length
Construction Maximum Pile Head Extrapolated
(m) Applied
(Hours)* Settlement Ultimate Load Remark
Load
(mm) (kN)
(kN)

TP-1 50 41 18,600 200** 18,600 Failed 30,000

TP-2 40 9 17,000 23 25,000 Passed 25,000

TP-3 50 183 11,400 250** 11,400 Failed 30,000

TP-4 50 42 17,500 60 21,000 Failed 30,000

TP-5 50 9 20,000 22 30,000 Passed 30,000

Note: * Borehole opening time from end of boring process to starting of concreting
** Settlement after continuous jacking under constant maximum applied load
 D3-5

Figure 5. Typical Result of Loading Test on Failed Test Pile

Figure 6. Typical Result of Loading Test on Passed Test Pile

Figure 7. Comparison of Loading Test Result on Original Test Piles

D3-6

SLAKING TEST ON TYPICALL SUBSOIL

With the deep basement, majority of the pile shaft were embedded in Zone 3 clayey subsoil,
which have high plasticity index as shown in Figure 4. Observing that there was correlation on the
test pile performances and the borehole opening time, the slaking property of the clayey subsoil
that caused the deterioration of skin friction is believed to be the major reason for the poor
performance of the test piles.
Figure 8 (a)-(b) and 9 (a)-(b) show the slaking behavior of a few soil samples when they were
soaked in water. The soil sample at 35m started to crack after 3 hours soaking and totally broke
after 10 hours. The soil sample at 68m started to crack and crumble after 2 hours soaking and totally
disintegrated after 13 hours. The tests confirm that the long borehole opening time might be the
main cause of the softening that reduces the bearing capacities. Limiting the borehole opening
time is necessary to prevent the softening.

(a) (b)
Figure 8. (a) Slaking Test for Soil Taken at 35m at 0 hour
(b) Slaking Test for Soil Taken at 35m at 10 hours

(a) (b)

Figure 9. (a) Slaking Test for Soil Taken at 68m at 0 hour

(b) Slaking Test for Soil Taken at 35m at 13 hours

RESULTS OF ADDITIONAL TEST PILE WITH LIMITING BOREHOLE OPENING TIME

Repeated loading tests were assigned to additional 3 test piles to replace the previous 3 failed
piles. The additional test piles were constructed by improving construction procedure to limit the
borehole opening time of less than 12 hours. All of the repeated test pile show good performance
with pile head settlements within the tolerable limit at the applied load of 2 times the design load,
and the extrapolated ultimate loads meet the expected design value. Table 2 shows the results of
the additional test piles. Figure 10 shows the typical result of the load-settlement curves for the
additional test piles.
 D3-7

Table 2. Results of Repeated Compression Test Piles

Borehole Test Pile Performance

Opening
Effective Extrapolat Theoretical
Time Maximum Pile
Test Pile Pile ed Ultimate
during Applied Head
No. Length Ultimate Remark Load
Constructi Load Settleme
(m) Load (kN)
on(Hours) (kN) nt (mm)
* (kN)

TP-1’ 50 8.4 20,000 23 30,000 Passed 30,000

TP-3’ 50 8.8 20,000 22 30,000 Passed 30,000

TP-4’ 50 5.6 20,000 21 30,000 Passed 30,000

Note: * Borehole opening time from end of boring process to starting of concreting

Figure 10. Typical Result of Repeated Test Pile

RELATIONSHIP OF ULTIMATE LOADS AND BOREHOLE OPENING TIME

Figure 11 shows the relationship between the ultimate loads obtained from the pile loading
tests and the corresponding borehole opening time during the installation of bored piles. The
ultimate loads for the failed piles were directly obtained from the maximum test load while for the
passed piles, the ultimate loads were extrapolated using the common extrapolated method, i.e.,
Mazurkiewicz. The figure shows that there is a tendency of decreasing ultimate loads with longer
borehole opening time. All the test piles that passed were constructed with borehole opening times
of 6 to 9 hours.
Combining the observation of the slaking tests with total disintegrating of soil particle after 10
to 13 hours soaking, limiting the borehole opening time of not more than 12 hours may be used
as a rule of thumb to avoid deteriorating of skin friction for bored piles construction in Jakarta.
Therefore, the design depths of bored piles in Jakarta subsoil should be limited to account for
construction with the borehole opening time not to exceed 12 hours.
D3-8

Figure 11. Relationship Between Ultimate Load and Borehole Opening Time

CONSLUSION

Borehole opening time during bored pile installation in Jakarta subsoil has a great influence to
the bearing capacities. Limiting the borehole opening time in the bored pile construction is strongly
recommended. The long borehole opening time in the construction of bored piles may trigger
softening of the clayey subsoil and thus reducing the bearing capacity. We suggest to limit the
borehole opening time of 12 hours. Slaking tests during the soil investigation period may be used
as simple method to propose the limit of borehole opening time.

REFERENCE

L. Crowther, Carroll. (1988). Load Testing of Deep Foundations. John Wiley & Sons. Inc. Canada.
Simons, N.E., Menzies, B.K. (1977). A Short Course in Foundation Engineering. Butterworth & Co
Ltd. United Kingdom.
Carter, Michael, P. Bentley, Stephen. (1991). Correlations of Soil Properties. Pentech Press. London,
England.
D. Nelson, John, J. Miller, Debora. (1992). Expansive Soil: Problem and Practise in Foundation
Engineering. John Wiley & Sons. Inc. Canada.