Indiana I-65 bridge settlement

[oldestguy]

Check out this ENR article.

http://enr.construction.com/infrast...nd-poor-soils-prompt-indiana-i65-shutdown.asp

The explanation of the problems cause sounds fishy.

What the heck is "compressed gravel" or "watertight soils".

Also what is an "artesian water pocket"

Sounds like amateurs describing a feature that is pretty new to me.

 

[oldestguy]

SRE: No problem either way. As yet there is work to do with the added supports for the widening. I'd be very surprised if they don't have problems like Pier 3 North when piles are driven alongside all the other piers. Sheet pile driving is pretty light compared to regular support pile driving effects nearby.

 

[SlideRuleEra]

Good points, oldestguy. The mix of existing piers supported by small, heavily loaded spread footings that are bonded to new deep pile supported piers will likely cause differential settlements problems from now on. As a bridge-builder, we successfully widened several existing bridges - but never with mixed foundations. The DOT engineers who designed those additions was smarter than that.

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