Helical Pile Contractor Resouces

[structure_engineer]

I am working of a project that has at least several hundred piles. It seems the helical pile contractors are not very responsive. Is that typical in that industry? The concept of screw pile / helical pile is fairly new to me. These guys are either slow or irresponsive. It does not look like they are interested in winning the job. I have heard from my colleague that one contractor took two weeks just to respond to her email with an Request for Proposal (RFP.) I sent out a request asking for what are the properties they are looking for prior to me sending a Scope of Services document to the soil consultants for RFP. I could not share the names of these companies as I believe in spreading good news only.

If you have dealt with helical pile contractors that is covering the Gulf Coast Region and is happy with the quality of work and is willing to share the names please share with me. A contractor that does install driven pipe piles, plus helical piles would be the preference. If that contractor can install driven prestressed precast concrete piles that would be even better. I am not sure I only limit myself to helical piles only as I believe PC piles would be better for the swamp area around the Gulf Coast region especially for lateral load resistance. I am aware of using batter piles for lateral resistance but I have not come across a project in my company that is using that design yet. Thank you for your attention and time.

 

[WinelandV]

In my experience in the Great Plains area of the U.S., I have rare contact with the helical pile installer - the G.C.s around here will find a helical installer. My task is to give them an required capacity per helical. Once the G.C. has shared the foundation plan with the helical sub, we occasionally get told "we can only do XX capacity - please revise the foundation accordingly."

Not sure this helps you out, but it may help explain why they aren't responding to you in a timely manner.

Please note that is a "v" (as in Violin) not a "y".

 

[TOLstryk]

I have trouble getting responses as well. In the absence of any info, I use 60k axial/uplift and 6k shear capacity for helical anchors.

 

[structure_engineer]

Well, it turns out he was on vacation and forgot to follow up with his emails after he got back from his vacation.

Could you guys share your experience dealing with some of the helical pile contractors? I have a mixture of open ended pipe piles, helical piles/ auger cast in-place piles in small numbers or precast concrete piles in the majority of the new site. The project is a green field site with new plant tie into an existing plant. So at the tie in location, the option is limited to helical piles or auger cast in-place piles (ACIP) to limit vibration to existing equipment foundation and pipe rack. The site is located in a swamp area close to the gulf coast. Could you recommend contractors who can do open ended pipe piles, ACIP or helical piles (in small numbers) and precast concrete piles or helical piles in the majority of the new site? The open ended pipe piles is for a piece of equipment supported by wide flanges. The intend is to install the open ended pipe piles, cut off at the desired elevation and field weld the wide flanges on top of the pipes. I could use precast concrete piles but cutting off at certain elevation could be a lot of work and slows down production so not so desirable.

For the majority of the new project site, I could use precast concrete piles. The issue is the same as above, cut off elevation varies after the pile reaches refusal. I am not a big fan of helical piles because of the cost associated with not so much lateral capacity. The wind speed is like almost 170 mph so there is a lot of shear. I think precast concrete piles is the way to go but the PM's think helical piles are easy to install and could be done in a much shorter period. Just to summarize, I need a pile contractor who could install several hundred open ended pipe piles, several hundred precast concrete piles or helical piles, and dozens of ACIP / helical piles. Thank you for your time and attention. Cheers.

 

[phamENG]

Like the others, I don't interface directly with the pile installer. I just review the designs from their engineer and make sure the inspections are done properly during installation.

I have a mixture of open ended pipe piles, helical piles/ auger cast in-place piles in small numbers or precast concrete piles

Is this all on one site? Wow. Hopefully not under the same building. You have friction piles, end bearing piles, and combination end bearing/friction piles...they'll all behave differently with different settlement characteristics. What you need is a good geotech.

 

[structure_engineer]

Geotechnical engineers are extremely competent, at least based on their proposals. I am working on reviewing the proposals now. I am not sure is using ACIP for majority of the new site is a good idea. My company seems to think the lack of quality control, hard to monitor making it a bad choice for the site, especially in the swamp/ marsh land area. Any thoughts or input?

If you have experience dealing with precast concrete piles and able to establish a good cut off elevation in your project, I would like to get your ideas. Thanks in advance.

 

[structure_engineer]

Just to put into context, I have made an estimation of the percentage of type of piles:

Open ended pipe piles: 20%; the other option is precast concrete piles if there is a good way to install steel wide flanges across the top of the precast concrete piles (like 8 to 10 per row, with multiple rows.) The issue is it gets messy as each pile reaches refusal at a different elevation and to establish a common elevation for the wide flange support is time consuming.

Precast concrete piles or helical piles: 65%

Auger cast piles / helical piles: 15%, only at the tie in location with the existing brown field

 

[TLHS]

What is driving you to precast?

Unless practice is different where you are, the reason you'd normally go with precast concrete piles is a corrossion issue or something else that makes steal not acceptable. You will sometimes see it justified on cost because the piles are normally cheaper per foot but unless you're installing a lot you have to account for more field monitoring and quality stuff to make sure you're treating them properly on install.

That being said, there are certainly ways to cut them off. How complicated that is depends on the type of pile and the type of loads you're going to apply. Tension and moment are going to be trickier than compression or shear. You will likely have an intermediate step though where you have to cast some grout or concrete to attach your steel plate to your pile and then weld that to your beam if you want a direct connection to steel.

 

[RobertHale]

Have you been working with the helical pile installers or the suppliers? My experience is that the installers are generally not the most sophisticated people. The suppliers, on the other hand, can be movers and shakers.
To be honest, after re-reading the posts, it seems like the cart might be in front of the horse. It seems you only have a geotechnical RFP out. Before really concerning yourself with interfacing with a specific supplier or installer, maybe you should wait for the Geotech to issue their report and recommendations. Am I missing something in this situation?

Robert Hale, PE, SE

 

[AskTooMuch]

We've installed lots of helical piles and precast piles. Post your email and I'll send the company we've used. I dont like posting company names in public forum.

Augercast, drilled shaft, precast concrete and helical pile use different equipments to install so you may want to limit to 1 or 2 pile type to limit mobilization costs.

I like helical piles, you can cut at exact elevation for your steel skid to bolt to. If you want more lateral capacity then they can design with bigger shaft diameter. You may want to use helical pile company that both design and install helical piles. If you have huge lateral, you need to meet the minimum length regardless if you reach refusal or required torque.
Helical can be more expensive than precast though if we are talking thousands of piles. You'd need a quote on both to compare.

This project seems to be still at FEL stage or I hope it is lol. Plant owner Project Engineer will decide (not Structural Engineer) what to use specially if cost difference is millions.

 

[dik]

I designed a few of them several years back based on geotech info and they seem to be doing well. The geotekkie was great to work with, and one of the best I've encountered. The piles were supporting six 400,000 lb transformers on a 3' thick slab. There was a Sorbweb containment below, so they had to be designed for a 10' unsupported pile length at the top. A current project is using them to support loads for a six storey building addition with the loads in the magnitude of 150K. I sent a query to the screw pile contractor and was surprised to get a response in minutes.

So strange to see the singularity approaching while the entire planet is rapidly turning into a hellscape. -John Coates

-Dik

 

[Canuck65]

I would recommend reaching out to the technical folks at Hubble.com re their CHANCE helical piles. They do work all over North America and manufacture and supply quality helical pile products. They would also be able to supply you with the names of contractors in your area that install their product. I have had nothing but success with Chance and their certified installers. I have had some terrible experiences with small time contractors that typically install helical piers for residential decks. Some of them make their own helical piles that are far inferior (but cheaper) and do not come with engineering certification.

 

[structure_engineer]

Correction: "Helical Pile Contractor Resources", fast fingers could not spell

AskTooMuch, I can't post my email address. Is there a way to do private messages on this forum? It seems like the choice to exchange information is limited.

Thank you all for your responses. The more I think about it, the more I am leaning more towards helical piles. With just several hundred piles (less than 1000 for sure), it is probably not worth to have precast concrete piles as the mobilization cost will eat the cost savings up! With ACIP or drilled shafts, there is lack of support from the rest of the team like the project managers and the rest of the civil structural team members. So I am good with helical piles, with enlarged top portion to resist shear. So I am limited down to open ended pipe piles and helical piles.

I have come to know Chance as a helical pile contractor from attending one of their presentations. There is also a helical pile company that does the engineering as well as installation and that is the type of company I am interested in using. There are companies that does just engineering and there are companies that does only installation. I hope to get quotes from only companies that does both so that there is less liability. In addition, geotechnical engineer could not mobilize until the wetlands permit is granted. So I have to do a design based on a preliminary report (using 2 existing soil reports) and then finalize my design after the final soil report is out. It will be interesting in seeing what the final soil report recommends. I will keep this post updated by then which could be Feb / March time frame. Wow!