3/18/2018 Construction Defects in Deep Excavation and their Remedies

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Construction Defects in Deep Excavation and their Remedies

Various defects occur during construction in deep excavations such as leakage through retaining wall, dewatering
during excavation, retaining wall construction, pulling out used pile and over excavation. Measures used to tackle
these defects are discussed in the following sections.

Construction Defects in Deep Excavation and their Remedies

1. Leakage Through Retaining Wall

This type of deep excavation issues occur when retaining wall is damaged or not adequately waterproofed, and the
type of project site soil is sandy soil with high level of groundwater. Figure 1 shows leakage of ground water
through retaining wall of deep excavation.

The excavation may collapse if the leakage through retaining wall is large, so this issue is substantially problematic
and pose great risk. When the leakage is small, it is possible that fine grain soil such as silt would be moved along
the water into the excavation.

This process may be slow, but it might cause failure in area around the project site if extra loads such as vibration
or any other loads act on this area. This is because the movement of fine grain soil would destabilize the soil and
hence vibration and other similar forces would trigger the failure.

The settlement of the soil surrounding the excavation area may be local or overall and its consequences could
seriously disastrous. Failure due to leakage through retaining wall shall be taken into consideration provided that
the soil has high permeability such as sand.

So, such problems need not to be considered in clay soil which its permeability is low and there is cohesion
between soil particles.

Causes of leakage in different types of retaining wall and techniques used to tackle this issue are shown in table.

Table-1: Causes of Retaining Wall Leakage and Its Remedies Techniques

Cause of groundwater leakage through Techniques used to tackle groundwater

Type of retaining wall
retaining wall leakage through retaining wall

It is not properly waterproofed

Soldier piles or Prevent the application of soldier piles and sheet
Poor grouting carried out in advance
laggings piles in sandy soil with ground water level
Several utilization of sheet piles

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3/18/2018 Construction Defects in Deep Excavation and their Remedies

Poor concrete quality used in the

Maintain good quality control of concrete
Diaphragm walls construction
Seal joints between panels properly
Leakage through wall joints

Adjacent retaining wall Differential deflection of adjacent walls lead to

Joint grouting
with different rigidities cracking due to earth pressure

Presence of pipe under Insufficient construction space results in poor Grout pipe locations prior to the start of
retaining wall construction due to the presence of pipes construction work

Fig.1: Leakage through retaining wall of deep excavation, water moves from lowest row of anchor
plates, and this problem solved, and the leaks stopped using prime resins polyurethanes

2. Dewatering During Excavation

Dewatering is used to keep excavation dry in permeable soil such as sandy soil or to lower groundwater pressure
of permeable soil beneath clay soil so as to prevent upheaval failure.

Pumping should be carried out with great cautions since pumped water may carry fine grain soil and lead to
settlement as illustrated in Figure 2. It should be known that pumping of ground water outside excavation area
may cause settlement outside the excavation area.

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3/18/2018 Construction Defects in Deep Excavation and their Remedies

Fig.2: Ground Settlement Caused by Pumping in Deep Excavation

3. Retaining Wall Construction

The construction of retaining wall causes settlement in the excavation under normal circumstances because of
unloading which is caused by trench excavation. Sometimes, trenches would suffer from movements which
produced greater settlement in the excavation area while diaphragm wall is constructed.

Moreover, when piles are used as a retaining wall, boreholes drilled for pile installation purpose would lose the soil
and cause movement of surrounding soil and subsequent settlement.

Finally, compaction effect caused by driving sheet pile in sandy soil with high level of groundwater cause
settlements but if the type of soil is clays then heave is likely to occur in soils close to the excavation area.

4. Pulling Out Used Pile

When soldier or sheet pile is used as a retaining wall in deep excavation and these piles are pulled, then voids will
be left after piles are removed and these voids may not be properly filled which cause settlement.

The purpose of removing piles after the construction of basement is to reuse them to reduce the cost.
Nonetheless, it is recommended to left piles at their place to prevent settlement.

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3/18/2018 Construction Defects in Deep Excavation and their Remedies

Fig.3: Formation of Voids due to Pulling Out of Piles and Subsequent

5. Over Excavation

Over excavation may cause considerable ground settlement and retaining wall deformation and it could lead to
total failure of excavation under worse conditions.

Over excavation may occur because of contractor negligence who is not follow the designed excavation depth for
the sake of his/ her benefit. This issue may be avoided if the work is monitored properly by supervisor.

©2017 The Constructor

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