Project: Piling work for LD gas holder export system

Objective:
To construct pile foundations for new LD gas holder export system near SP#4
Problem statement:
Construction of pile foundations from TW-11 to TW-29 by 30th June 2018, which fell in a critical path
due to difficult terrain.
Scope of Work:
73 number of piles to be constructed.

Project Enablers:
1. Creating working space for piling operation at slopped terrain.
2. Timely road shutdowns.
3. Removal of SP#4 spare materials, road lights and high masts from the working area.
4. Removal of trees and shrubs from garden.

Execution challenges:
1. Drawing was initially released as open foundation but it was not feasible on site as the area was
filled up with cables, slag and hot metal dump.
2. Enough space was not available for piling job to be carried on site.
3. Trees were present at site and had to be cut down as part of enabling work to be done.
4. Huge amount of enabling work was required due to presence of HT cables.
5. Around 6500 cubic metre of earth was to be removed after the cutting. Even after deploying 4
vehicles and each making 4 trips a day, approx. 30 days would have been required (a vehicle can
carry 14 cubic metre at a time) to dump it outside the work premises.
6. Full road shut down could not be taken due to major shut down of SP#4.
7. Obtaining clearances from various departments was a time-consuming process. Thus, very less time
was left to complete the project on time.

Mitigation Plans:
1. The design of open foundation was changed to pile foundation due to the difficulties in excavation
on backfilled terrain and space constraints.
2. Slope was surveyed, scheme was prepared for benching of slope and 6m width of working space
was created to carry out the job.
3. Environmental clearance to cut the shrubs present at the site was obtained from the environment
department.
4. After obtaining required clearances, HT cables were cut.
5. Space was found within the work premises to dump the earth cutting to avoid any further delay.
6. As the project was getting delayed due to unavailability of full road shut down, a half road shut
down was taken and flagmen along with proper barricades were provided on both the sides to assist
traffic movement.
7. Following additional measures was taken to expedite the work process:
- Number of rigs were increased from 2 to 6 soon after getting the road shutdown thus fronts
could have been increased.
- Power connection was taken from two sources to avoid any delay due to power failure
- Sunday was made a working day and job was performed round the clock in 2 shifts.

Learnings:
1. Proper geotechnical site investigations should be performed to avoid any last-minute changes in
design.
2. Skilled and resourceful vendors for piling job shall be developed as piling and piling rigs were
bottleneck for this project.
3. Most of the time allotted to the project was consumed in enabling works and getting clearances
from concerned departments.

Construction photographs:

Profile of slope before benching Profile of slope after benching

Piling work at benching area with slope protection SP#4 department material at site