Cellular Cofferdam to act as permanent foundation

[Scottie25]

I am designing foundations for a large Museum that is to be built in a river. The river bed consists of a couple metres of alluvium (both cohesive and granular) and some glacial deposits on top of bed rock, andesite. I was thinking of doing a land reclaim however I am not allowed to just back tip into the river for obvious environmental reasons. I was thinking of constructing a large cellular cofferdam which follows the line of the actual building and therefore the building walls will sit on the cofferdam with land infill in the space enclosed by the cellular cofferdam. Have cofferdams been used in a permanent fashion like this before with a large multiple storey building on top?
I was worried about the sliding resistance of the cells of the cofferdam on the rock due to the heavy load of the building and lateral earth pressure wanting to force the cells apart?

If anyone has any ideas then I appreciate the help.
Also if anyone can suggest a better alternative to cellular cofferdam I would love to hear from you. I have also thought about cassion piles into the bed rock then filled with reinforcement and concrete. Or Spread foundations constructed on the river bed?

Thanks

 

[PEinc]

Museums are built to last forever. Steel sheet piling is not. Consider something more durable than steel sheet piling. Repairing or replacing sheet piling that is along the outline of a building will be difficult and expensive in 50 years.

http://www.PeirceEngineering.com

 

[MiketheEngineer]

Re-route the river. Dig a foundation. Don't forget about floods

Good luck.

 

[GeoPaveTraffic]

Cellular sheet pile structure could be made to work, corrosion would be an issue; but is addressable. I worked on a lock and dam that is over 50 years old constructed of steel sheet piles a few years ago, very little steel loss over that time. However, there will be other issues.

A lot would depend on "normal" river depth, design flood depth, and size of the structure. If the "normal" river depth is small, then a temporary diversion structure will be fairly easy to construct and the building could be founded on piles or caisons bearing in alluvium or on rock. As the river depth increases, then some sort of foundation that could be installed from river level may be more desirable. Large diameter drilled caisons may be an option.

Mike Lambert

 

[hokie66]

Building a building "in a river" is invariably a bad idea. Among other things, the building will act as a dam, thus causing greater flooding problems upstream. If you are forced to do it, build it like a bridge, but be prepared for maintenance like a bridge as well.