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ABSTRACT
Well foundations are quite appropriate foundations for alluvial soils in rivers and creeks where maximum depth of scour
can be quite large. In India technology of well foundation for design and construction is quite well developed. Still there
are situations where serious problems are encountered at site during construction of well foundations. Some of the typical
problems have been identified and solutions adopted by the author and also elsewhere in some earlier jobs have been
presented in this Paper.
* Executive Director, M/s Construma Consultancy Pvt. Ltd. Mumbai Email: construma_sp@rediffmail.com
† Written comments on this Paper are invited and will be received upto 30th September, 2007.
124 SAHA ON
Bridge wells, no sand filling was done. These wells were (i) Continue grabbing much below the cutting edge
filled with water only to reduce the weight at the founding level of the well.
level. In long span bridges or in bridges where the
(ii) Dewater well up to certain depth to reduce the
horizontal force is large, heavy foundation mass is
buoyancy and thereby increase the weight of
desirable for stability and serviceability requirements point
the well.
of view and hence well foundation is a highly appropriate
solution. (iii) Remove soil in contact with the outside surface
of the well by grabbing to a certain depth.
In spite of the excellent development of technology
on well foundations there are still some areas where (iv) Flushing with a jet of water on the outside soil
engineers face difficulty while sinking of wells, some of through holes, which are kept in the steining at
which are stated in this paper from the direct experience certain intervals during the construction of the
of the author. The author had the opportunity of having steining of the well.
associated with construction of well foundations of many
(v) By thumping on the water inside the dredge hole.
large and outstanding bridges including Second Hoogly
Bridge, Varanasi Bridge, etc., while working with (vi) By Kentledge loading on the well.
Gammon India Ltd., and Hindustan Construction Co.
The merits and demerits of each of the above
Ltd.
measures are discussed below.
2. SINKING WELL THROUGH STIFF CLAY STRATA (i) Some engineers continue grabbing much below
If a very stiff clay layer is encountered during the the cutting edge level of the well
sinking of a well, the engineer has to face a very tough
and challenging situation if the well becomes stationery
and does not move at all.
At that time due to the action of horizontal water
current force, the well may start tilting. The well becomes
more vulnerable due to tilt if a step is provided on the
outside face of the well steining to reduce the thickness
of the steining. At the initial stage if the tilt is not brought
under control, the tilt goes on increasing making the
situation very difficult to control. This leads to a very
expensive and time-consuming affair for attempting to
make the well straight and vertical within practical limits.
This is a very serious situation and one should
examine how this resistance is developed. A solution
should be devised on the basis of insight into the causes
for the resistance to sink.
Referring to Fig. 1 it may be seen that the primary
resistance comes on the sides and also by bearing at the
base over the area of the well steining. The projection
on the outside surface over the height of the kerb by 50
mm to 75 mm as recommended in IRC 78-2000 is very
helpful to reduce the resistance due to stiff clay on the
outside surface of the well.
(a) PIPES PLACED (B) PIPES PLACED VERTICALLY
PERPENDICULARLY UPWARDS
(a) To overcome this resistance to the author’s
knowledge, the following measures have been tried
by various engineers.
Fig. 1. Showing location of pipes within well steining
HIGHLIGHTS
THE SINKING OF WELLOF THE 178TH COUNCIL
FOUNDATIONS IN DIFFICULT SITUATIONS
MEETING 125
One site engineer with vast experience in large and deep well foundations, the wells must
construction of well foundations and claimed in be designed three dimensionally with a realistic
achieving success by adapting this method, lateral load during construction condition to
continued grabbing to a depth of about 10 m avoid disastrous situation due to which the well
below the cutting edge of the well situated in steining may crack transversely. The cost of
the river Ganga in a major project when the well such an analysis and design is negligible
became stationary in a very stiff clay layer. This compared with the unpleasant situation, which
particular well was partly in the water and partly may become very expensive and delay the
in the bank. One day the well suddenly sank to project badly.
a depth of nearly 10 m leading to a major
(iii) Remove soil in contact with the outside surface
catastrophe. This was a very unwise decision,
of the well
which should never have been taken.
If the top soil layers are soft, this does not help
IRC 78 : 2000 specifies that sumps made by
much. If the stiff clay layer exists at a shallow
dredging below cutting edge shall preferably not
depth then it may help to some extent.
be more then half the internal diameter.
(iv) Flushing with jet of water on the outside face of
(ii) Dewatering well as a device to sink a well
well
The purpose of dewatering is to reduce the
In this process holes are kept in the well steining
buoyancy. Thus the buoyant weight of the well
with outlets on the outside surface of the well.
is increased which increases the sinking effort
Two types of orientation of the outlets are shown
of the well. But the major problem is the chance
in Fig. 1 (a) & (b). In Fig. 1 (a) the outlets are
of occurring sand blow.
perpendicular to the vertical whereas in Fig. 1
If the sand blow occurs and if the sand blow is (b), the outlets are inclined with the tip upwards.
eccentric and the lateral force exerted on the Experience shows that the outlet hole of the pipe
well is high, the well may break into 4 segments gets blocked with the entry of the clay more
along its height, which was noticed in many easily than the inclined one. A plug was provided
projects in this country. The author has developed to prevent entry of sand or other softer material.
a method for the design of a well foundation for This plug moves out with the force of water jet.
resisting excessive sand blow forces, which was
When the well gets stuck in a very stiff clay
published in IRC Journal¹ in 1993. This method
layer, water is pumped from the top of the
was used in a major bridge across river Ganga
steining. Water coming out on the outer surface
where the well foundations of 13 m diameter up
of the well is supposed to lubricate the surface
to 67 m depth, which was the deepest well for a
and reduce the adherence of the clay on the
road bridge in India at that time was used. There
surface of the well which consequently reduces
is no literature available which specifies the
the upward resistance against sinking down of
evaluation of horizontal force for the design of
the well.
a well foundation for the condition during
construction when the well is like a hollow pipe (v) By thumping on the water inside the dredge hole
and is in a most vulnerable condition. For such a by dropping grab
large and deep well, IRC method of design was
This also has been tried to overcome the
not used. Instead a rational and conceptual
resistance.
method developed by the author was used. The
quantities of the well were nearly half even for (vi) By Kentledge loading on the well :
such a deep well. It may be noted that all the
The Kentledge loading is placed on the top of
wells were sunk to the designed founding level
well either by sand bags or by concrete blocks
without any appreciable difficulty.
leaving adequate space in the central zone of
According to the author for a major bridge with the dredge hole for grabbing. This weight helps
126 SAHA ON
increase the sinking effort of the well. clay over the entire inside area at the bottom of the well
In case of tilt of a well, eccentric Kentledge kerb. The well was observed to sink down when the
load is placed for the correction of tilt. inside clay soil was cut and removed.
(b) The method which is different from the methods After the removal of the bearing still clay strata, the
listed above had been tried by the author and briefly wells started moving down.
described below :- Thus this method was found to be quite effective,
In one project when the well became stationary in a safe and efficient method.
stiff clay layer, this method was used. In those wells the
outside projection of the well kerb was 75 mm. In the 3. BOULDERY STRATA
upper region the strata was of softer variety. Pipes were The bouldery strata can be dealt with 3 ways.
not kept in the well steining to inject water on the outside
surface of the well. (i) When the boulders are lying loose, they will come
al = area of the outside surface of the well over (i) Appropriate choice of cutting edge and adoption of
proper detailing
Two types of cutting edges are of use for well
foundations as shown in Fig. 5 (a) & (b) of IRC –
78 : 2000. The angle iron cutting edge works well
when the well passes through alluvial soil strata
without any hard obstruction. There are instances
when the cutting edge met some hard obstruction, it
became dislodged and caused obstruction to the well.
Compared with the angle iron cutting edge a V type
cutting edge is more appropriate in meeting various
obstructive situation provided correct detailing is
adopted. The inclined plate should be stopped about
25 mm above the bottom tip of vertical plate and the
welding of the joint between the vertical plate and
the inclined plate must be done as shown in Fig.
Fig. 5 (b) :Typical details of V-shaped cutting edge
No.5(b). The vertical and the inclined plates must
not meet at the bottom most point and consequently
As per the present practice only one Borehole is
the welding must not be done at the bottom tip. The
taken at each foundation location. The soil properties
author is aware that in many bridges in the Himalayan
of various strata are available along the depth. To
region where the strata are full of boulders the
obtain the complete information of the existence of
welding at tip came off and the plates were bent out
type of soil/rock or large boulders if any covering a
and caused lots of obstruction to sinking leading to
part of well foundation at least 3 boreholes should
various problems including delay in progress of
be taken. If the diameter of well is large, then at
construction. Hence it is advised to adopt detailing
least 4 bore holes should be taken. With this
as shown in Fig. 5(b).
knowledge the span arrangements be made so that
(ii) Adequate no. of Borelogs must be taken in the wells can be sunk smoothly. Soil properties should
location of each well be taken of one borehole for the design of
foundations whereas the other boreholes will present
information on the type of strata, locations and their
depths. Presence of very large boulder covering a
part of the well at some depth in the bridge over
third Brahmaputra at Jogighopa and similar type of
problems including sudden change of bed profile are
encountered in various rivers in India for which a
very expensive time consuming measures were
adopted. This can be avoided if enough information
of the soil strata is available at the time of design.
(iii) Floating Caisson Sinking
When the depth of water at the location of a well is
more than about 5 m then construction of well on
temporary sand island is not only difficult but also
uneconomical. In this situation steel caisson is
fabricated on the bank and floated in water either
by tilting platform or by a gantry. If the caisson is
very large and very heavy then tilting platform is
more convenient. In other cases normally the caisson
Fig. 5 (a) :Typical details of angle iron cutting edge
130 SAHA ON
is brought to the water using a gantry. However, the installed dead anchors at least at 6 locations as
choice of tilting platform or a gantry or by some shown in Fig.6 with ropes with adjustable device.
other means should be made as per the locally Each anchoring should also be done at 2
available resources and convenience. locations in elevation. By pulling or releasing the
anchor rope the tilt and shift can be eliminated.
After the floating caisson is brought to the designed
location of the well, further building up of caisson is • Steel piles may be driven inside the dredge hole
done. This work together with concreting inside the at 4 corners after ensuring the correct position
caisson to the designed depth is done till the cutting of the well.
edge reaches the bed level of the river. This is a very
(b) For caissons with sinking sets
critical stage. There is every possibility of tilt and shift
occurring, since the caisson is subjected to The barges should be located towards upstream and
unidirectional flow of water. In several projects, large downstream of the river and anchored at least at
tilt and shift occurred which subsequently created a the locations as shown in Fig.7 with the device for
lot of problem with that project. The tilt and shift must adjustment so that the well can be positioned at the
be checked very thoroughly before grounding and designed locations. The caisson is placed between
suitable corrective measures must be taken if any tilt the barges with very small clearance between any
or shift occurred. Some measures are suggested here two barges and the caisson so that with the water
below which if adopted judiciously should minimize current force acting on the caisson below the barges,
the tilt and shift of the caisson. tilting of the caisson is restrained. However, in case
of any tilt or shift occurring the same is controlled
(a) For large diameter caissons
by pulling or releasing the anchor ropes appropriately.
• After taking the caisson to the designed location
the caisson should be anchored to the already
WINCH WINCH
WATER LEVEL WATER LEVEL
WINCH WINCH
WATER LEVEL WATER LEVEL
ELEVATION ELEVATION
DIRECTION OF
RIVER FLOW
PLAN
PLAN
Fig. 6 Fig. 7
HIGHLIGHTS
THE SINKING OF WELLOF THE 178TH COUNCIL
FOUNDATIONS IN DIFFICULT SITUATIONS
MEETING 131
5. CONCLUSION ACKNOWLEDGEMENT
On this paper a list of difficult situations, which bridge The author is indebted to Dr. T N Subba Rao for
engineers normally encounter during sinking of well making many valuable suggestions by sparing his valuable
foundations, is presented. In some cases the author time, to make this Paper more complete.
himself devised some solutions to some perennial
problems, which have been described in this paper. The REFERENCES
problems like the formation of hump inside the dredge 1. Saha G.P. “Analysis and Design of Varanasi Bridge
hole of a well foundation or wells cracking due to sand Well Foundations – A Conceptual Approach” Journal
blow, or in a stiff clay layer wells becoming stationary of Indian Roads Congress Vol. 54-2. Paper
and not sinking down are quite common situations. In presented in the Annual Session of IRC in November
several major projects where such situations developed 1993.
the author as the Technical Head of that organization,
developed methods and adopted them to overcome those 2. Saha G.P. “Method of Stopping the Formation of
problems and these methods are presented in this paper. Heaves Inside the Dredge Hole of a Well
Foundation” Indian Highways, June 2002.