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Current practice of CFA piling in Australia and New Zealand

Conference Paper · June 2018

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CURRENT PRACTICE OF CFA PILING IN AUSTRALIA AND NEW ZEALAND

Martin D. Larisch, Brian Perry Civil, Auckland, New Zealand, +64274055406, martinla@fcc.co.nz
Martin D. Larisch, Geotechnical Engineering Centre, School of Civil Engineering, The University of
Queensland, Brisbane, QLD, Australia, +61419799701, m.larisch@uq.edu.au

ABSTRACT

Despite the introduction of Continuous Flight Auger (CFA) piles in Australia about 30 years ago, the
pile type has not yet been fully accepted in the geographically ‘neighbor’ country of New Zealand. One
of the main advantages of CFA piles is the high production rate which can be achieved with the system.
This can make CFA piles very economical. Their installation is vibration free and lateral stress relief
associated with bored piles can be reduced notably if construction is carried out correctly. Pile diameters
and pile lengths are limited compared to rotary piling applications.

The construction of CFA piles in water saturated or unstable soils is possible without any additional
measures like casings or drilling fluid to keep the excavation stable, as long as installation parameters
are monitored and controlled correctly. Compared with conventional bored piles the visual verification
of the pile excavation is not possible as concrete is poured whilst the auger is extracted. CFA piling is a
“blind process” and advanced quality assurance is critical to construct a conforming pile. Modern piling
rigs are fitted with electronic and mechanical sensors and measurement devices to monitor construction
parameters during pile construction.
Pile lengths in access of 40m have been achieved in Australia with 900mm diameter CFA piles and
maximum pile diameters of 1,500mm for pile depth close to 30m were achieved in Australia.
In New Zealand, 1,200mm piles with depth around 24m are the current state of practice. The main
challenge in New Zealand is around the strong seismic requirements which makes full depth cages nec-
essary.
The paper discusses the current state of practice in Australia and New Zealand with a particular focus
on seismic design requirements and typical applications for ground improvement, working platforms
and basic design principles for foundation piles constructed with the CFA methodology.

KEYWORDS

CFA piles, dynamic pile testing, seismic design, pile design, ground improvement

INTRODUCTION

In the last two decades the piling and deep foundation industry has dramatically changed around the
world but especially in Australia and New Zealand. The author have had the privilege to work in both
countries leading piling and deep foundation contractors for 12 years. Particularly in Australia CFA
piling has significantly shaped and changed the deep foundation market during the last decade.

The construction and mining boom in Australia during the last two decades was a driver for commercial
and residential construction projects, in urban areas but also in the densely populated cities at the East
Coast of the country. The requirement for high rise building fueled innovation in deep foundation prac-
tice and a few companies have driven this transformation in recent years.

CFA piling is an efficient and cost effective method to transfer building loads into the suitable bearing
layer. The method can also be used for embedded retaining walls providing better stiffness and water
proofing performance than sheet piles. Especially secant pile walls are much cost efficient for 2-3 level
basements and with the introduction of medium sized CFA piling rigs (40 to 60 ton operational weight)
this market segment was developed with great success in Sydney, Melbourne and South East (SE)
Queensland on the East coast of Australia.
Some deep foundation contractors in Australia transformed the market by including the design risk into
their scope of work for embedded retaining walls and foundation piles offering their clients highly com-
petitive and cutting edge solutions.

Figures 1 and 2 show the different sizes of current CFA piling rigs in Australia and New Zealand. It is
obvious that CFA rigs in Australia are generally larger and have the ability to drill much deeper using
bigger diameter than the majority of the CFA piling rigs in New Zealand. The Soilmec SR50 is a good
reference for both markets – it is considered ‘medium sized’ rig in New Zealand but a small scale rig in
Australia.

Type Soilmec SR50 Mait HR160 MaitHR420 Enteco E25MD Fundex F3500 Bauer BG40
Rotary Drive Torque 180 kNm 163 kNm 420 kNm 530 kNm 450 kNm 400 kNm
Operational weight 50 T 52 T 130 T 130 T 120 T 120 T
Pile diameter 900 mm 1,000 mm 1,500 mm 1,500 mm 1,500 mm 1,200 mm
Maximum drill depth 21 m 19.5 m 35 m 38 m 45 m 26.5 m

Fig. 1. Selection of typical CFA piling rigs in Australia

Type Soilmec SR30 Soilmec SR50 Soilmec SR75

Rotary Drive Torque 108 kNm 180 kNm 293 kNm
Operational weight 30 T 50 T 75 T
Pile diameter 750 mm 900 mm 1,200 mm
Maximum drill depth 19 m 21 m 25.5 m

Fig. 2. Selection of typical CFA piling rigs in New Zealand

The situation in New Zealand was slightly different as the country (and therefore the construction mar-
ket) are much smaller and there was no construction boom until 2015. Therefore, the New Zealand
construction industry didn’t experience a similar boom CFA of piling as in Australia. CFA was intro-
duced at a much smaller scale about 15 years ago and projects were generally smaller, even though the
construction industry in New Zealand has successfully delivered some significant and challenging in-
frastructure and building projects in the last decades. However, ground conditions are generally less
suited to the CFA technique than in Australia and the penetration of rock was required for most regions.
For reliable rock penetration, larger rigs with higher torque and pull-down forces were required and the
market didn’t respond as well as in Australia. In addition, contractors didn’t offer design and construc-
tion work for their clients which was mainly due to rather complex seismic design requirements and a
strong influence of consultancy firms. Foundation piles for larger structures were usually built using
large diameter bored piles and the required diameters and depths were usually far beyond the industry
standards of CFA capabilities.

CFA PILING IN AUSTRALIA – IT IS ALL ABOUT SIZE…

CFA piling was introduced in Australia in the 1970’s. The technology has been used as niche product
until about 2005. With the growth of the cities on the East Coast, CFA piling became more attractive.
Especially piling companies in Melbourne developed CFA piling very quickly and used this technology
to design and construct deep foundations.

The driver for this change were the ground conditions in Melbourne which consists of a thick layer of
soft silts (10-25m) underlain by gravels and weak rock. Usually foundation piles need to be socketed
into the rock layer and therefore pile lengths are typically in the range of 40m. The gravel layer is per-
meable and therefore the use of drilling support fluids can be risky. Therefore deep CFA piles are an
optimal solution for ground conditions in Melbourne, especially as production rates are high if the piles
can be installed in a single stroke. Usually only short reinforcement cages are required as no lateral
(seismic) loads are expected.

Fig. 3. Fundex CFA piling rigs transformed the CFA piling market in Australia in the last dec-
ade, advanced concrete technology was required to install reinforcement cages for CFA piles

It is reported by various authors (Tchepak 1998, Slatter 2005) that CFA piles as well as drilled displace-
ment piles were used for the foundation of various landmark buildings in Melbourne. Slatter (2005)
reported about the foundation of the Eureka Tower (291m high, 91 floors, opened in October 2006) as
a milestone in CFA technology in Australia. The original foundation scheme was based on the installa-
tion of 1.2m diameter bored piles, 40m deep with 12m rock sockets and installed under drilling fluid.
As the use of polymer fluid was risky due to the high sand content of the soil, the piling contractor
proposed a competitive design & construct scheme to install CFA and drilled displacement piles as a
replacement for the bored piles. Dynamic pile load testing was carried out by the contractor on 3% of
the foundation piles to verify pile capacities of 10-12 MN ultimate vertical loads.

Based on this extremely successful combination of in-house engineering capabilities, modern CFA tech-
nology for deep piles in the range of 40m single stroke and internal construction verification by (dy-
namic) load testing, the deep foundation market in Melbourne developed world class standards and
innovations in the niche market of deep CFA piling. Figure 3 shows the typical Fundex CFA piling rigs
which revolutionized the CFA market in Australia and were pioneers for the installation of deep CFA.

The installation of CFA piles of around 40m depth requires extremely skilled operators and site crews
as well as highly developed concrete technology. The use of grout was limited as the Australian Piling
Standard AS2159-1995 penalized the use of grout by applying a reduction factor for skin friction. Con-
sequently, concrete suppliers in Melbourne developed highly workable and very stable CFA mixes
which were measured using spread rather than slump testing.

The large and powerful CFA piling rigs could also be used for the installation of basement retention
systems (e.g. secant piles or contagious piles) as shown in Figure 4. In combination with highly ad-
vanced tooling, CFA piles were able to penetrate rock providing an excellent transition between the pile
shaft and the rock mass.

Fig. 4. The powerful CFA pilings were able to install straight CFA piles for basement retention
and the tools were able to penetrate rock

PILE DESIGN

Pile designs in Australia and New Zealand are usually based on the Australian Piling Standard AS2159-
2009.

Foundation piles are designed using various proven methods like the alpha-cu method, the beta method
or, especially for CFA piles, the method after Bustamante and Gianeselli (1998). This method was orig-
inally based on the prediction of the bearing capacity and settlement of drilled displacement piles. The
method has since been used successfully by many practitioners (including the author) for both, drilled
displacement piles and CFA piles and the designs were successfully verified by load tests on site. It
appears that auger shape does not have a significant influence if one design method covers a wide range
of different screw auger tools.

This design method can be used in displaceable soil only (e.g. sand, gravel, silt, clay, marl and chalk)
and is based on in situ soil investigation data. The design method is largely based on CPT and MPT test
data and the SPT has only an indicative character.
Based on the correlations carried out between the initial design assumptions for various CFA piling jobs
in Australia (especially Melbourne) and the correlating PDA and CAPWAP results, the design approach
was found to be suitable for the design of CFA.

PILE LOAD TESTING

The use of dynamic pile load testing for CFA piles was a novelty in Australia prior to the first decade
of the new millennium. Typically, only driven piles were tested using dynamic pile testing methods and
bore piles as well as CFA piles were tested using static pile testing methods, which don’t allow testing
of working piles and therefore incur higher costs and program implications. However, Australian piling
contractors in collaboration with some geotechnical consultants utilized external drop hammers of typ-
ically 10 ton and up to 3.0 m drop height to mobilize the CFA piles. Dynamic pile load testing of CFA
piles allow designers to apply lower geotechnical reduction factors in accordance with AS2159-2008,
which makes pile load testing very attractive.

Larisch et al (2013) report about the use of PDA testing for a deep foundation scheme of more than 700
CFA piles in Queensland, Australia. For the whole project twenty four working piles (each 900 mm in
diameter and typically between 15 m to 22 m long) were tested dynamically using the Pile Driving
Analyzer (PDA). Typically four strain gauges and four accelerometers were installed about one meter
below the pile head and the tests were carried out at least fourteen days after installation to ensure suf-
ficient concrete strength. The piling contractor used a 10 ton drop weight which operated inside a struc-
turally certified steel frame (Figure 5) to re-strike the piles using one meter drop height. One representa-
tive blow was selected for each pile and analysed using the computer program CAPWAP.

For all dynamic load tests the ultimate geotechnical strength Pg (8 MN) of the piles was achieved, in all
cases with less than the specified maximum settlements of 20 mm (ULS). A typical CAPWAP load
settlement curve for a working pile is shown in Figure 5 and the load-settlement data show adequate
agreement with the static load test results which were carried out prior to construction.

Fig. 5. Certified PDA testing frame with 10 ton drop weight (left), typical CAPWAP load dis-
placement curve for a working pile (right) after Larisch et al (2013)

CFA PILING IN NEW ZEALAND – IT IS ALL ABOUT SEISMIC…

In New Zealand, CFA piling is a relatively new technology, which was introduced about a decade ago.
It needs to be understood that the requirements of the foundation and ground engineering market are
very different from those at the other side of the Tasman Sea as New Zealand is a seismic region.
Due to these seismic requirements in New Zealand, it is not uncommon, that foundation piles of 1.5m
up to 3.0m in diameter are required to be able to resist the lateral loadings in an earthquake event. Such
large pile diameters are typically achieved by rotary bored piles as shown in Figure 6.

Fig. 6. Large diameter bored piles with diameters of up to 3.0m are required for many projects
in New Zealand as a result of seismic design requirements

Piling and ground engineering works in New Zealand are not less challenging than in Australia, most
probably the opposite is the case due to the seismic requirement in designs. However, CFA piles are
slim foundation elements which are installed at a fast rate and the opportunity for this piling system lies
in retaining wall structures and moderately loaded foundation piles. Recently, the largest piling rig in
the country was upgraded to install 1.200mm diameter CFA piles up to 25m depth, which provides an
opportunity for clients and designer alike to implement the more efficient CFA technique.

The majority of piles in New Zealand require rock sockets in low to medium strength rock. This has
been a challenge for the 50 ton class of piling rigs in the past. Even basements in Auckland, which are
typically only 2-3 levels deep, are usually installed using rotary techniques as the location of locally
cemented soils will result in refusal of CFA techniques. Figure 7 shows a circular shaft retention system
in Auckland using CFA piling.

Fig. 7. Shaft and basement retention systems in New Zealand were built using CFA technol-
ogy, due to the local geology, basements are usually only 2-3 levels deep
CFA piling technology is very common in New Zealand for ground improvement works. The construc-
tion of lattice structures as liquefaction mitigation is a successful ground improvement method in loose
granular soil conditions with high silt contents, which can’t be improved by vibratory methods (e.g.
vibro-compaction or stone columns). Based on the experience of recent infrastructure projects, CFA
piles for lattice structure are rarely exceeding 10m as the liquefiable soil layers are often located close
to the surface.

Based on the design of Nguyen et al. (2013), lattice boxes of about 6m x 6m are installed. Deep soil
mixing (DSM) to form in-ground shear walls has been used to remediate against the potential effects of
earthquake induced liquefaction on many projects. A grid pattern of soil-cement walls act as a confined
shear box, which can provide additional shear stiffness and strength for sites to withstand liquefaction.
Current design practice for DSM grids commonly relies on the strain compatibility assumption, where
the DSM walls and confined soil are assumed to experience the same shear strain.

The walls of the boxes are made of overlapped piles constructed of low strength concrete (with typical
UCS values of 1-3 Mpa). Figure 8 shows a typical lattice structure for liquefaction mitigation of a bridge
abutment.

Fig. 8. Lattice structures are commonly used as liquefaction mitigation measures in silty soil
conditions, the wall of the boxes are usually overlapping CFA piles installed with small rigs

The biggest challenge for concrete lattice works are typically concrete technology. In some instances,
and based on the availability of local aggregates, the low concrete mixes might have difficulties in
pumping.

CONCRETE TECHNOLOGY

Due to seismic events in New Zealand, foundation piles normally require full length reinforcement
cages. Concrete technology in New Zealand is currently developing fast and it is expected that shortly
similar standards will be achieved as in Australia. The ‘Recommended Practice: Tremie for Deep Foun-
dations’ booklet (2012) is a common guideline for the design of tremie and CFA piling mixes in Aus-
tralia and it has found its way to the New Zealand market as well. The current tremie concrete guideline
developed by the DFI/EFFC (2016) provides very similar recommendations.

In previous years contractors used an admixture which was added to the concrete truck on site, turning
stiff concrete of about 120mm slump into fluid concrete with almost grout like properties. Deep foun-
dation contractors have started to walk away from this practice as the addition of the admixture was
their own risk and there were reported incidents related to concrete quality which resulted in arguments
between concrete suppliers and piling companies. As a result, concrete suppliers were asked to develop
highly workable mixes in their plants so that the addition of external additives is not required anymore.
WORKING PLATFORM DESIGN

The Australian piling and deep foundation industry, in this case represented by the Piling and Founda-
tion Specialist Federation (PFSF), has implemented the procedure which was developed by the Federa-
tion of Piling Specialist (FPS) in the UK. The guidelines to calculate bearing pressures for different
piling rigs, based on different load cases as well as guidelines for a sufficient working platform design
are based on the BRE 470 document (2004) for ‘tracked plant’. Even though these guidelines have been
in place for more than a decade and, based on the author’s personal experience, all major piling compa-
nies in Australia and New Zealand strictly comply with the recommendations, a CFA piling rig toppled
over in June 2017 as a result of a working platform failure Figure 9).

It is important to note that the bearing pressure of piling rigs is heavily dependent on extraction and pull-
down forces applied by the piling rig. Based on the application, these forces can change and if designers
only allowed for partial extraction forces due to the assumption that for shallow piles the rig operator
doesn’t need to activate the full force, these assumptions must be carefully checked. It should also be
noted that for CFA piling rig, about 90% of the extraction force is typically transferred through the mast
foot. If required load spreading devices should be installed to the piling rig to avoid peak pressures and
potential failure of the working platform under the mast foot.

Fig. 9. Despite the regular use of best practice in bearing capacity calculations and working
platform design for most projects, this CFA rig collapsed in Australia in June 2016 [1]

The construction and maintenance of a certified working platform is critical for the safety of the opera-
tions and for achieving specified tolerances and sufficient productivity. Maintenance of the working
platform shall be ongoing and it will be optimized when rotation of the tracks can be reduced.

SUMMARY AND CONCLUSIONS

Applications for CFA piling vary greatly in Australia and New Zealand. Due to the geology in Australia,
deep CFA technology has developed over the past decade which created a highly competitive deep
foundation market in Australia for both, foundation piles and embedded retaining wall structures. This
market has been developed and supported by strong in-house design capabilities of the majority of the
major deep foundation contractors. Frequent pile load testing for design & construct projects offer good
risk management for all parties involved in the project.
CFA piles for foundation piles were installed beyond 50m depths in Melbourne using 900mm diameter
augers. Secant pile walls are very popular and the overall construction quality is high in most cases.

In New Zealand CFA piling is mainly used for small to medium sized deep foundation projects. Designs
are usually carried out by external consultants and pile load testing is uncommon. Therefore, the market
is not as dynamic as in Australia. Due to seismic requirements, full length cages are typically required
 and advanced concrete technology for plunging reinforcement cages is required but not (yet) readily
available outside the major cities.
CFA piling rigs are typically smaller than in Australia (50 ton class) as the ground conditions require
maximum penetration depths of 20 – 25m.

Another profitable market for the CFA technology in New Zealand is ground improvement using lattice
box structure for liquefaction mitigation in seismic events.

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

The authors thank the DFI-EFFC technical committee for the opportunity to prepare this paper and to
share his personal experience during the conference in Rome.

REFERENCES

AS2159-1995 Piling - Design and Installation. Sydney, Standards Australia.

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Bustamante, M. and Gianeselli, L. 1998. Installation parameters and capacity of screwed piles. Proceed-
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Larisch, M, Poskitt, N, Netterville, H and Dredge S 2013, ‘Advanced quality assurance for piling works
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Nguyen, T, V, Rayamajhi, D, Boulanger, R, W, Ashford, S, A, Lu, J, Elgamal, A, and Shao, L,

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Scott, JN, Suckling, TP, et al. 2006, ‘Business benefits of an integrated CFA rig instrumentation system’,
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[1] http://www.couriermail.com.au/news/queensland/falling-crane-crushes-car-at-brisbane-building-
site-at-breakfast-creek/

Tremie Concrete for Deep Foundations, 2012, ‘Recommended Practice’, Concrete Institute of Australia,
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of Foundation Contractors and Deep Foundation Institute, Book

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