TECNICAS REUNIDAS, S.A.

STANDARD SPECIFICATION

NUMBER TITLE

AP-101 GEOTECHNICAL STUDY

1 26/05/00 ALL
0 3/4/92 APPROVED J.C. J.C. J.A.N.
HEAD OF ENGINEERING
Rev. DATE REVISED PAGES ORIGINATOR DEPARTMENT MANAGER
 SPECIFICATION Nº AP-101
GEOTECHNICAL STUDY
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TECNICAS REUNIDAS, S.A. TITLE DATE 26/05/00

CONTENTS

1. OBJECT .............................................................................................................................. 1
2. SCOPE OF THE GEOTECHNICAL STUDY ....................................................................... 1
2.1. Soil characteristics .................................................................................................. 1
2.2. Recommendations for the preparation of the land .................................................. 1
2.3. Foundations............................................................................................................. 2
2.4. Piling........................................................................................................................ 2
2.5. Foundations for equipment subjected to dynamic loads ......................................... 2
3. SURVEY TECHNIQUES ..................................................................................................... 2
3.1. Test pits................................................................................................................... 3
3.2. Static penetrometer ................................................................................................. 3
3.3. Dynamic penetrometer ............................................................................................ 3
3.4. Mechanical boring ................................................................................................... 3
4. NUMBER OF POINTS TO BE SURVEYED ........................................................................ 4
5. DEPTH OF THE POINTS.................................................................................................... 4
6. LOCATION OF THE POINTS.............................................................................................. 5
7. TYPES OF SAMPLES TO BE EXTRACTED ...................................................................... 5
8. NUMBER OF SAMPLES TO BE EXTRACTED .................................................................. 6
9. TESTS TO BE PERFORMED ON SITE AND AT THE LABORATORY.............................. 6
9.1. On site ..................................................................................................................... 6
9.2. At the laboratory ...................................................................................................... 6
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1. OBJECT
This specification has the object of establishing the requirements to be taken into consideration
in order to obtain a Geotechnical Study allowing to have knowledge about the soil
characteristics, necessary for the infrastructure project and the foundations of the buildings,
structures and equipment which make-up the Project.

2. SCOPE OF THE GEOTECHNICAL STUDY

The Study will comprise the performance of all the field and office works necessary to obtain
from them the following information as described and which will be included in such Study.

2.1. Soil characteristics

– Conditions of the subsoil in the area: structure, lithology, weathering, etc.

– Characteristics and thicknesses of the different strata.

– Watertable depth.

– Existence of underground water streams.

– Existence of voids, faults or slides.

– Chemical analysis and recommendations about the type of cement to be used.

– Previous uses of the ground, prior works, and possible modifications suffered by its
profile.

2.2. Recommendations for the preparation of the land

– Possibility of scarifying.

– Excavations and cuts.

– Recommended slopes for cuts and methods of execution.

– Recommendations about walls and other retaining elements: earth pressures, depth
and pressure of foundation.

– Recommendations about the most suitable materials and methods of execution for fills.

– Characteristics of earth bund walls for storage tank bunded areas.

– Recommendations for the foundation of storage tanks, estimate of overall and

differential settlements during hydraulic testing and under operating conditions.

– Recommendations for preloading in storage tank areas, if it were necessary

(surcharges, periods of time, etc.).

– C.B.R. and recommendations for the design and execution of roads.

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– Recommendations about other problems which may arise regarding the conditions of
the subsoil.

2.3. Foundations

– Conclusions about allowable pressures for foundations for different depths in fills,
natural soils and rock.

– Estimate of settlements to be produced in fill areas and natural soils due to various
loads, pressures and depths of foundations, as a function of the footing shape and
dimensions.

– The values of the static elastic soil modulus of the soils and fills for the design of
foundation slabs.

2.4. Piling

– Recommendations about the type, length and workload for piles, in the case of
considering deep foundations as necessary.

– Behavior and foreseeable settlements under a group of piles.

– Recommendations about test loads.

2.5. Foundations for equipment subjected to dynamic loads

– Determination of the soil parameters for the design of foundations of such equipment
by means of specific field and laboratory tests and comparison with those extracted
from the respective technical literature:

Values of Cz: coefficient of uniform elastic compression

Cq: coefficient of non uniform elastic compression
Ct: coefficient of uniform elastic shear
Cy: coefficient of non uniform elastic shear (obtained for slabs of 10
sq.m.)
G: shear modulus
n: Poisson ratio
z: damping ratio

3. SURVEY TECHNIQUES

The techniques to be used shall be suitable to assure in each case the determination of the soil
characteristics and their degree of homogeneousness. The more common are the following:
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3.1. Test pits

They will be executed when there is no danger in the excavation due to slides or filtrations
and when the necessary depth can be reached to perform the tests allowing to determine
the soil characteristics in a natural state. If the watertable is above such depth, it will be
checked that the ground maintains its natural state.

3.2. Static penetrometer

This survey technique is used when the following circumstances are present:

– That the soil strata to be crossed does not contain stones or large size gravels (>5 cm).

– That the necessary depth can be reached to perform therein the necessary tests
allowing to determine the natural soil characteristics.

– That data exists about the adjacent grounds allowing to establish a correlation between
the different soil strata and their penetrometric strength.

– That the continuity with the existing stratography is verified.

3.3. Dynamic penetrometer

This technique is used when the following circumstances concur:

– That the necessary depth can be reached to perform therein the necessary tests
allowing to determine the natural soil characteristics.

– That positive knowledge is at hand about the continuity of the strata insofar as its
nature and natural state are concerned.

– That data exists about adjacent areas allowing to establish a correlation among the
various strata and the penetrometric strength.

3.4. Mechanical boring

As a general rule, it is suitable to perform boreholes when the ground is quite

homogeneous clay and undisturbed samples have to be taken and complex tests
performed, such as for instance: the triaxial test.

When the ground profile is humid with volumes of clay, sands, gravel, etc., it is preferred
to perform enough penetration tests in points scarcely spaced with each other and only
some boreholes and simple tests of the samples obtained. In these cases it is more
important to detect some weak area than to examine some point with too much detail.
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4. NUMBER OF POINTS TO BE SURVEYED

In order to determine the extension of soil survey, the following considerations must be taken
into account:

a) The amplitude of the exploration program must be related with construction cost. If
the latter is small, the exploration must be slight and the lack of knowledge about the
soil must be compensated with a high safety coefficient. If the construction cost is
high, a detailed exploration of the ground will provide an important economical
saving and will increase its safety.

b) It is necessary to take into consideration the type of structure, the materials to be

used, the number of floors, the characteristics of the soil, the seismicity of the area,
the prior knowledge obtained about the zone and its adjacent areas, the surface
occupied by the construction, the cost of testing equipment, etc.

c) For average conditions a prospection may be adapted for every 250 to 800 sq.m. of
surface.

d) If the foundation is on piles, which require load tests, the number of prospections
must be for every 150 to 200 sq.m. of surface.

e) The number of points to be surveyed in the ground surface which the construction will
occupy will be as a minimum two.

5. DEPTH OF THE POINTS

The depth to be reached at the points where prospections will be performed, will be determined
according to the following considerations:

a) The test depth does not have to be the same at all the prospected points even when
from the results it can be assumed that there exists homogeneousness with each
other. In general, in 10% of the points, rock or firm stratum must be reached allowing
to have knowledge about the thicknesses of all the compressible layers as well as of
their characteristics.The resisting stratum must be penetrated sufficiently to have the
guarantee that its thickness is representative and that we are not before a layer of
neglectable thickness.

b) The depth to be investigated must allow to have knowledge about the existence of
compressible layers and their thickness down to the elevation in which its existence
may affect the stability and settlement of equipment and construction.

c) In general the exploration must be performed down to a depth in which the ratio of
pressure increase produced by the load to that obtained at the foundation level is less
than 0.1 for compressible soils and 0.2 for less compressible soils.

d) If the rock appears soon, it must be sufficient to explore down to that level.

e) In foundations on floating piles, the length of exploration must be accounted for from
2/3 of the length of piles and it will always exceed their length.
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f) As a general rule, the prospection length shall not be less than five meters, although
in linear works a lesser length may be allowed.

g) In order to determine the prospection length, the ratio between the sum of dead load
tons, permanent loads and construction live loads and the area to be occupied by it
must be taken into account.

6. LOCATION OF THE POINTS

The points to be surveyed will be laid out taking into consideration the following criteria:

a) The distribution of the in situ tests depends on the size of the area to be surveyed,
the prior knowledge about it and the location of the Plant within the area.

b) In the areas where important loads are located, specific boreholes collaborating to
the determination of the characteristics must be executed and in order to ensure that
where the pressure bulb stress is of the order of 0.10 of the pressure at the soil level
no voids exist which can endanger the stability of the equipment or structure.

c) The distribution of points will be uniform at the surface of construction, a prospection

must be performed below heavy equipment sensitive to settlements and distributing
the rest in a uniform manner.

d) For normal conditions, it is valid to provide a square mesh or any other regular mesh,
located on the surface which covers the construction and which allows to obtain
stratigraphic profiles representative of the average conditions of the ground.

e) If the technique chosen for the prospections is that of the test pit, the points to be
surveyed must not coincide with the construction or equipment supports.

7. TYPES OF SAMPLES TO BE EXTRACTED

The types of samples to be considered are shown below as a function of the soil characteristics
which they represent:

a) The block samples, taken in the test pits, duly profiled are the undisturbed samples of
better quality.

b) The samples taken from the boreholes may be grouped as a function of their
characteristics as follows:

– It maintains the mechanical properties of the soil

undisturbed in their natural state .......................... Type I

– It maintains the density and the moisture in its

natural state undisturbed ...................................... Type II

– It maintains only the moisture in its natural

state undisturbed ................................................. Type III

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– It maintains only the nature of the soil

undisturbed ........................................................ Type IV

8. NUMBER OF SAMPLES TO BE EXTRACTED

The criteria to be followed in order to determine the number of samples to be extracted is the
following:

a) One Type II sample will be taken at each point per each stratum or every two meters.

b) If the ground is clay and it is below the watertable, Type I samples will be taken every
two meters.

c) If the ground is expansive, one Type II sample will be taken every stratum or at least
one per meter, until reaching the depth of five meters below the level foreseen for the
foundation.

d) If the ground is made up of stones or gravel, one sample will be taken per stratum of
Type IV and the thickness of the stratum will be determined.

e) If the ground is made up of stones or gravel below the watertable, one sample will be
obtained per stratum of Type III or otherwise of Type IV.

9. TESTS TO BE PERFORMED ON SITE AND AT THE LABORATORY

9.1. On site

– Static penetrometer

– Dynamic penetrometer

– Load plate

9.2. At the laboratory

In extracted samples, the following tests will be performed:

TESTS Nº OF SAMPLES TO
BE TESTED
Gradation by sieving 75%
Atterberg limits 75%
Lambe swelling Every one of the samples
extracted in which the
fluidity index is less than
0.3
Sulphate determination 100%
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TECNICAS REUNIDAS, S.A. TITLE DATE 26/05/00

Moisture 100%
Density 100%
Fluidity index 75%
Simple compression 100%
Edometric To Type I samples

Where the construction of roads or highways is foreseen, it will also be necessary to

determine the Proctor and CBR values in the samples extracted.

% of natural moisture - % plastic limit

NOTE : Fluidity index =
%liquidlimit - % plastic limit