Tremie Seal Weight on Piles? 1

[jrw501]

In the final condition of the bridge with piers in water where they've performed cofferdam construction, would you typically assume that your piles are carrying the weight of the tremie seal ? My tendency would be to conservatively assume the weight of the tremie seal can be transferred, probably at least up to the strength of the bond, but I wonder if this is too conservative?

I could see assuming either that the ground surface is providing relief on the piles or maybe that if any meaningful resistance is provided by the ground surface that in the constructed condition significant pile forces are simply going to punch through the bond with the tremie anyway.

 

[SlideRuleEra]

In the final condition of the bridge with piers in water where they've performed cofferdam construction, would you typically assume that your piles are carrying the weight of the tremie seal ?

The submerged weight of the seal, absolutely yes. What else would support the seal?
Not the soil, if the soil was any good piles would not have been used.

http://www.SlideRuleEra.net

 

[jrw501]

Thanks for the quick response. That is definitely our usual policy since as you've said we don't really want to be counting on the soil to be doing anything with bearing. It's come up as a question effectively by the contractor looking to shorten some pile lengths, but definitely seems unconservative to us.

 

[STrctPono]

Are these driven piles? Drilled Shafts? If drilled shafts, I would assume that they are using a steel casing? Depending on the way in which it were constructed, I have my doubts that the piles would actually carry the weight of the tremie slab, however, I too would probably just air on the conservative side and include the tremie weight in the design of the piles.

 

[jrw501]

In this case it's 4' diameter steel pipe piles. Thankfully, all parties seems to be on board with including the weight at this point.