Faculty of Science and Technology

SCE 5431 -- Earthwork Engineering

Lecturer: Mr. Tony Poon

Tel: 2176-1003
Office: 301, Email: tonypoon@vtc.edu.hk
Outline

 Topic 1: Introduction to rocks and soils

 Topic 2: Ground investigation method

 Topic 3: Flow rate in groundwater lowering

 Topic 4: Dewatering systems

 Topic 5: Soil Compaction

 Topic 6: Ground improvement methods and design consideration

 Topic 7: Excavation support methods

2
Outline

 Topic 8: Mechanical properties of intact rock

 Topic 9: Shear behavior of discontinuities and rock mass

classification

 Topic 10: Stability of rock slope

 Topic 11: Tunnels and caverns

 Topic 12: Review and reflection

3
 Lecture 7:
Excavation Support Methods

4
Outline

 7.1 Common reasons

 7.2 Supporting method for trenches

 7.3 Supporting method for deep excavations

5
Common reasons
Excavation
 In general, excavation means to loosen and take out materials leaving
space above or below ground. Sometimes in civil engineering term
earthwork is used which include backfilling with new or original materials
to voids, spreading and levelling over an area.
 British Standard CP6031 gives standards and recommendation to
earthworks covering embankment and cuttings, levelling and compacting,
and the use of earthmoving plants etc.

6
Common reasons
Dangers
 From 2000 to 2009, an average
of 35 workers died every year in
trenching or excavation cave-ins,
according to Bureau of Labor
Statistics data.
 Being struck or crushed by
equipment, dropped loads,
equipment rollovers,
electrocutions, and other events
account for the remainder.
 Much more dangerous in mining.
Coal burst (煤爆) is a violent
collapse of coal walls and/or
roofs in underground coal mines.
7
Common reasons
Design codes and guides

 GEOGUIDE 01
 GCO Publication No. 1/90
 BS 8002
 BD 42/00
 Piling handbook
 DD ENV
 CIRIA 104

8
Outline

 7.1 Common reasons

 7.2 Supporting method for trenches

 7.3 Supporting method for deep excavations

9
Supporting method for trenches
Trench vs. Excavation
 Excavation - any man cut, cavity,
trench, etc., formed by earth
removal. Excavations can include
a building basement, roadbed or
trench.
 Trench - narrow underground
excavation that is deeper than it is
wide and no wider than 15 feet.
 All trenches are excavations, but
not all excavations are trenches.
Trenches are usually more
dangerous.

10
Supporting method for trenches
Four-foot rule
 OSHA (Occupational Safety
and Health Adminstration)
requires that workers have a
means to get in and out of a
trench if it is four or more feet
deep.
 You must not have to travel
more than 25 feet to reach the
means of egress.

11
Supporting method for trenches
Five-foot rule
 OSHA requires protection from
cave-ins by protective systems
unless the excavation is:
(a) Entirely in stable rock, or
(b)Less than five feet and the
competent person inspects the
excavation and determines
there is no indication of a
potential cave-in.

12
Supporting method for trenches
CEDD - Guide to Trench Excavations
 For trench excavation with a
depth greater than 1.2 m,
adequate support must be
installed in a timely manner and
ahead of excavation as far as is
practicable.
 If the depth of the excavation
exceeds 1.2 m or the
consequence of failure of any
slopes affected by the trench
excavation is considered
significant, the contractor must
employ a foreman.

13
Supporting method for trenches
Soil type can be used to determine what
Soil classification (OSHA) type of protective system can be used.

 TYPE A SOILS are cohesive soils

with an unconfined compressive
strength of 1.5 tons per square foot
(tsf) or greater. Examples are often:
clay, silty clay, sandy clay, clay loam
and, in some cases, silty clay loam
and sandy clay loam.
 TYPE B SOILS are cohesive soils
with an unconfined compressive
strength greater than 0.5 tsf but less
than 1.5 tsf. Examples are: angular
gravel; silt; silt loam.
clay silt sand

14
Supporting method for trenches

Soil classification (OSHA)

 TYPE C SOILS are cohesive soils

with an unconfined compressive
strength of 0.5 tsf or less. Type C
soils include granular soils: gravel,
sand and loamy sand, submerged soil,
soil from which water is freely
seeping, and submerged rock that is
not stable.
 STABLE ROCK Natural solid
mineral matter that can be excavated
with vertical sides and remain intact
while exposed.
clay silt sand

15
Supporting method for trenches

(1) Slope and bench - slope

Trench Sloping

Trench Simple
Bench

Trench Multiple
Bench
16
Supporting method for trenches

(3) Shielding / trench box

17
Supporting method for trenches

(4) Shoring system

 Shoring systems consist of posts, wales, struts and sheeting.

 Two basic types of shoring:
Timber
Aluminum hydraulic (Hydraulic shoring offers a critical advantage over
timber shoring because you do not have to enter the trench to install or
remove it. Most systems are light enough to be installed by one worker.)

18
Supporting method for trenches

(4) Shoring system

19
Supporting method for trenches

Safety checklist
1) Construction vehicles, excavated spoil, materials, etc. are being kept at least 1.5 m
away from the edge of the excavation.
2) Spoil heaps are being properly placed and covered, and will be kept sheltered in
wet weather, or will be removed for maintaining access for pedestrians and traffic.
3) Necessary arrangements (e.g. stop boards) are made to prevent vehicles driving
into the excavation.
4) Adequate safe access to and egress from any trench is being provided and
properly maintained.
5) The open trench is properly lit and fenced off in accordance with Code of Practice
for the Lighting, Signing and Guarding of Road Works (HyD, current version).
6) The location of any buried services has been identified and clearly marked.
7) Crossing services are properly supported.

20
Supporting method for trenches

Safety checklist
8) Trenches are being supported according to the design and contract specifications.
9) The workers are working at safe distances from each other.
10) The assumptions used in the design are still valid.
11) There is no movement or deterioration of the ground that may put adjacent
services, roads, structures or slopes at risk.
12) The area is unaffected by vibration induced by the operation of heavy machinery.
13) The ground water level is as used in the design (i.e. not higher).
14) The work is being done in accordance with the specifications/drawings. If not, is
the variation permissible?
15) Unsupported trench faces are safe, with no sign of peeling away, progressive
collapse, etc.
16) The method of withdrawing support during backfilling is safe.
17) Backfill material is being properly compacted. 28
 Supporting method for trenches

Safety checklist
 Ramps or ladders
 Hard hats
 Ventilation equipment may be required
if there is a possibility of an
atmospheric hazard.
 Connect support system members
securely.
 Avoid overloading system members.
 Install other structural members to carry
loads imposed on the support system
when you need to remove an individual
member.
 Backfill the excavation as soon as
possible. 29
 Supporting method for trenches

Safety checklist

No employee shall be permitted to work where he may be struck by an

excavating machine. Put up a barricade to prevent entry and assign a
supervisor to the construction site

Working on or in close proximity to a highway or any other place

where public vehicular traffic may cause danger to men at work, the Mechanical plant, vehicles, storage of materials (including
working area shall be so barricaded and suitable warning signs and excavated material) or any other heavy loads should n3o0t
warning lights shall be set up to direct traffic away be located in the ‘zone of influence’ of an excavation
Supporting method for trenches

Safety checklist

What’s wrong with this trench? 31

Supporting method for trenches

Safety checklist
 No means of egress
 Shoring not complete
 Missing backfill
 No edge stabilization
 No hard hats
 No air monitoring (One of the
greatest hazards of confined
spaces - and one generally
present in excavations - is air
quality. )
 Material too close to the edge
What’s wrong with this trench?

25
Outline

 7.1 Common reasons

 7.2 Supporting method for trenches

 7.3 Supporting method for deep excavations

26
Deep excavation and supporting system

Deep excavation, unlike a shallow one, often requires to protect the

sides of cut using suitable support. Besides, the problem of ground
water cannot be avoided.

27
Deep excavation and supporting system
Supporting & construction method
 Retaining system
Sheet pile wall; pipe pile wall; soldier pile wall; secant pile wall;
diaphragm wall; soil mixing wall (jet grouting); cantilever wall;
combined pile wall; soil nail wall (also belonging to propping
system)

Retaining
 Propping system
Internal bracing; ground anchor
Propping
 Construction method
Dumpling method; cofferdam; top down method

28
Deep excavation and supporting system

 sheet pile wall

Why this shape?

29
Deep excavation and supporting system

 pipe pile wall  soldier pile wall / lagging

Popular to top down construction

37
http://www.deepexcavation.com/en/retaining-systems-soldierpile
Deep excavation and supporting system

 secant pile wall  diaphragm wall

Question: how to design the

Similar idea to secant pile or pipe pile retaining system? Theory? 38
Deep excavation and supporting system

32
Deep excavation and supporting system

33
Deep excavation and supporting system

 Propping system – internal bracing

34
Deep excavation and supporting system
 Propping system – ground anchor

35
Deep excavation and supporting system
 Propping system – ground anchor

36
Deep excavation and supporting system
 Construction – dumpling method
This is used where there are buildings or street in the proximity. The method is to
construct a series of retaining wall in trench, section by section, around the site
perimeter ,leaving a centre called "dumpling"

When the perimeter walls are in place,

excavation may start at the centre of the
dumpling, until exposing a section of the
wall. Then the wall may be side supported
by struts, shoring or soil anchor etc., again
section by section in short length, until the
excavation is all completed.

By the using of sheet pile, excavation may

reach maximum to about 15m.

37
Deep excavation and supporting system
 Construction – cofferdam
A cofferdam may be defined as a temporary box structure constructed in earth or water
to exclude soil or water from a construction area, such as for foundation or basement
works.
Use of cofferdam suitable for excavation of
larger scale can be of :

a)Sheet pile cofferdam – Also known as

single skin cofferdam. Interlocking type
steel sheet pile is used and can use for
excavation up to 15m.

b)Double skin cofferdam – This works

similarly like the sheet pile to form a
diaphragm. However, the diaphragm is
double-skinned using two parallel rows of
sheet pile with a filling material placed in
the void between.
38
Deep excavation and supporting system
 Construction – sheet-pile cofferdam
Steel, amongst other materials such as timber, is most effective to be used as sheet pile
due to its high tensile as well as their interlocking ability. It can be used as timbering to
excavation in soft and/or waterlogged soils especially in congested site where there is
no enough space for complicated shoring

Most of them can be water-tighted and for

some heavy sections they can be driven
down to 15m depth .

The piles are lifted by a crane, using the

lifting holes near the top of each pile, and
positioning them between the guide
walings of the guide. Powered hammer
(fitted with a grip to the pile) which are
hanged by the crane is usually use to drive
the pile. Sometimes hydraulic hammer
can be used to reduce noise.
39
Deep excavation and supporting system
 Construction – double-skin cofferdam

https://dawsonwam.co.uk/projects/bp1-cofferdam-canary-wharf

Double-walled types of cofferdams are used when the area of construction site
is large and depth of water is high. In this place use of single walled cofferdam
becomes uneconomical as the supports are to be increased. So double walled
cofferdam is used.
The space between the walls are filled with soil. To prevent the leakage from
47
the ground below, the sheet piles are driven to a good depth in the bed.
 Deep excavation and supporting system
 Construction – bottom-up method

https://mymrt-underground.com.my/construction/station-construction/
41
 Deep excavation and supporting system
 Construction – top-down method

https://mymrt-underground.com.my/construction/station-construction/
42
Deep excavation and supporting system
 Construction – top-down method

43
Deep excavation and supporting system
 Construction – stability analysis
Hand calculation: GCO Publication No. 1/90
2D Finite element method: Plaxis, SAFE
3D Finite element method: 3D FLAC, DYNA

SAFE: Oasys Geo Suite

44
Faculty of Science and Technology

Thanks!