vibration.

Installation tolerances and minimum

Fig 4.14 King post wall construction, Medinah,
Saudi Arabia
Fig 4.15 Continuous flight auger (cfa) rig
distance to existing walls for plant operation need to be
noted. Where groundwater is likely to flow or seep into
the gaps between piles, it may be necessary to plug
them with in-situ concrete or jet grouting behind the
piles. Contiguous bored piling must be lined or faced
with a reinforced concrete wall if there is risk of water
ingress or loss of loose soil through the gaps between
piles. Independent blockwork walls with a drained
cavity may also be used. In determining available floor
area or width within the substructure, the additional
thickness of facing or blockwork walls must be allowed
along with wall installation tolerances.
4.3.4 Secant pile walls
Secant pile walls are formed by installing augered and
cased or cfa piles on a hit-and-miss basis at pile
centres slightly less than pile diameter. The initial
(female) piles may be concreted with normal mix
concrete (hard-hard secant wall) or with a weaker
grade concrete allowing the male piles to cut the
secant area into the female pile cross-section with less
effort (hard-soft secant wall). A typical hard-soft
secant wall is shown in Figure 4.16. A compromise in
the reduction of the strength in the weaker pile is also
sometimes used (hard-firm secant wall).
When cfa rigs are used to install the secant piles,
the reinforcement cage is pushed into position through
the wet concrete or the cage is vibrated to a lower level
using a vibrator and steel mandrel. The use of cfa piles
in secant walls is therefore restricted to depths of 12-
20m. Installing reinforcement can become more
difficult if the pile concrete stiffens as free water drains
from the mix into the surrounding ground.
Secant pile walls are preferred in granular water-
bearing soils, where contiguous piles are unlikely to
be satisfactory. Constructing guide walls for secant
pile installation involves additional time and expense.
Hard-soft secant pile walls, installed by cfa rigs,
provide a most competitive solution for both temporary
and permanent soil retention in water-bearing free-
draining soils. In such conditions, however, the risk that
the concrete will become less durable and waterproof
must be assessed; where necessary, a lining wall should
be installed to counter such risk.

4.3.5 Diaphragm walls

Fig 4.16 Hard-soft secant wall construction,
Carlton Gardens, London
The use of slurry-supported trench operations filled
with tremied concrete to provide a wall for both
temporary and permanent soil retention, as introduced
by the ICOS Company in the 1960s, has developed
during the past 20 years with important improvements
in excavation and slurry-cleaning equipment. In

52 Chapter Four IStructE Design and construction of deep basements including cut-and-cover structures
particular, the use of cutter-mill excavation equipment
based on the reverse circulation of soil cuttings and
slurry has allowed the construction of deep walls
(structural walls up to 60m and more) with exacting
standards of vertical tolerance (between 1:200 and
1:400). Figure 4.17 shows grab excavation equipment
and Figure 4.18 a modern cutter rig developed for
working in low headroom. A conventional cutter is
shown in Figure 4.19 and a specially developed mini-
cutter for constricted urban sites in Figure 4.20.
Using heavy steel reinforcement to withstand
high flexural wall moments can delay the placing of
reinforcement (see Figure 4.21) and make it difficult
to ensure homogeneous in-situ concrete.
Early developments in diaphragm wall design
included the use of precast post-tensioned wall
elements and post-tensioned in-situ walls. Neither of Fig 4.17 Grab excavation equipment for
these innovations has found favour in the UK, diaphragm walls
although the improved surface finish of precast
elements and the reduction of reinforcement
quantities in post-tensioned walls can prove
advantageous. In some countries, these methods can
be subject to patent restrictions.
Any prestressing is undertaken before the soil in
front of the wall is excavated and while the wall is
fully embedded on both sides. Tendon forces and
eccentricities are determined using the final loading
of the structure and the retained soil with no tension
developed across the wall cross-section. The soil
restraint during prestressing is calculated by assuming
full passive pressure and earth pressure at rest. For
examples of prestressed walls and a description of the
method, see references 4.12 and 4.13. Fig 4.18 A cutter rig working in low headroom
© Benaim
4.4 Selection of wall type
In practice, diaphragm walls have tended to find
use in basements and cut-and-cover structures of
larger plan area and greater depth and especially
where groundwater exclusion applies. For modest
depths and basements of up to two storeys, bored
piled walls are likely to prove more economic,
especially where soil conditions allow efficient
drilling with limited overbreak.
Comparisons of alternative wall construction
options should take account of the total construction
cost, including the cost of facing walls, together
with the long-term financial effect of loss of finished
plan area and width. References 4.13-4.15 give
relative cost data.

4.5 Types of support system

Various methods can be used to restrain the peripheral Fig 4.19 Reverse circulation cutter for
walls while the permanent structure is being built. The diaphragm walls

IStructE Design and construction of deep basements including cut-and-cover structures Chapter Four
53