Case Study

Piled Raft for Tower Block

GROUP 4

Situation
The design of the raft assumed that the walls of the two level
basement car parks would act with the raft over the piles to
transmit the shear and bending forces to the outer piles the
shear and bending forces to the outer piles.
The walls of the basement had almost full height openings,
placed one above the other, and contained only nominal
reinforcement.

Original Design

The combined strength

these walls plus the
1.5m thick slab was
quite inadequate to
transmit the loads.
The mistake was
discovered whilst the
tower block was being
constructed

Schematic Arrangement of New Raft

The remedial work

required a new raft to
be constructed
beneath the existing
one

Remedial Work
Placing of concrete for the lower
part of the new raft was carried
out conventionally.

Grouting was continuous until

the work was complete.

In order to achieve good bond

with the existing raft the upper
part the new raft was packed
with single sized aggregate and
then grouted with a retarded
and fluid cement paste.

Pipes were so placed to let the

air our in front of the grout
surface, then to indicate where
and when the grout had
arrived, and then to allow
grouting to continue from
immediately behind the
advancing wall of grout.

The grout was introduced under

pressure to the back of the pour
through a complicated system
of metal pipes, pinned to the
underside of the existing raft
The method produced a wall of
grout that extended from top to
bottom of the pour and that
flowed forward towards the
peripheral shutters with the top
surface behind the bottom.

Thank you.