Cairo University Faculty of engineering

credit hour system

CEMN 281
SITE REPORT
(Electric high-speed train 6 th of October)

Submitted by: Yousef Mohamed Atef 1190047

Company name: The Arab Contractors

Supervisors’ names: Eng. Ahmed Abdel Mobdy, Eng. Mohamed

Abdel Lattif, Eng. Mahmoud Abdel Baset, Eng. Shady, Eng. Mustafa

Submitted to: Dr. Nabil Abdel Badie

Submission date: 20/10/2022

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TABLE OF CONTENT
Table of Contents
1) Introduction .......................................................................................................................................... 3
2) Training site .......................................................................................................................................... 4
3) Typical system ...................................................................................................................................... 4
I. Piles ................................................................................................................................................... 4
➢ Construction procedure ............................................................................................................... 5
II. Pile cap ............................................................................................................................................ 13
➢ Construction procedure ............................................................................................................. 14
III. Piers ............................................................................................................................................ 21
➢ Construction procedure ............................................................................................................. 21
4) Construction problems ....................................................................................................................... 25
5) References .......................................................................................................................................... 26

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 1) Introduction

It is crystal clear that Egypt has been developing the transportation

networks recently, to keep up with people needs and trying to
increase the GDP trough decreasing the time spent in traveling and
traffic jams which causes low productivity. A great revolution in
transportation section is taking place nowadays; many national
projects such: Monorail, Cairo LRT (light rail transit) and electric
high-speed train is being constructed to ease the traffic in Egypt as
well as connecting different parts of the country to carry people
and goods across the country. Electrical high-speed train is one of
the biggest national projects, it will connect 60 cities nationwide
via trains that can operate at up to 230 km/hour. It will include
three lines and we will be able to make about 500 million journeys
annually, this network will be accessible by 90% of Egyptian. The
first line will link Ain Shokna city with both Alexandria and Marsa
Matrouh and will extend for 660 km, the second will stretch 1100
km linking Cairo in north with Aswan in south, while the third line
will link Luxor with Hurghada. This project will provide more than
40000 job opportunities in addition to 7000 indirectly jobs for
suppliers. The initial cost is said to be 360 billion L.E, this project
is a coordination between Siemens Mobility and its consortium
partners Orascom Construction and The Arab Contractors with The
Egyptian National Authority for Tunnels. Siemen’s president and
CEO said that the electric high-speed rail in Egypt is the largest in
the company’s history since its establishment, he also confirmed
that the new network will cut carbon emission by 70% compared
to cars and buses as environmental issues are mainly considered
in new projects. The Egyptian president Abdel Fattah El-Sisi said
the new network comes as a consolidation of the fruitful
cooperation between Egypt and Germany in infrastructure field.

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 2) Training site
The training site was located in 6th of October city, West Somid
zone 2. The Arab Contractors company is in charge of 8km of the
railway, these 8km are divided into 2 sections each of 4km, the 2nd
section where I trained interferes with the monorail project in
somewhere along the section. The statical system of the 2nd section
has 3 different systems, the first 800m are designed as frames,
while the second is 2km with typical system held on piles, pile cap,
pier, pier cap and girders; this was the system I have viewed in
site, the last system which lasts for 1.2km is designed as retaining
wall system in which girders are rested on retaining walls instead
of resting on piers. The typical system span is 26m.

3) Typical system
As shown in figure the typical
system for piers consists of 5
major elements:1. Girders, 2. Pier
cap, 3. Pier, 4. Pile cap, 5. Pile.

I. Piles
Piles are foundation members
which made of timber, steel, and
concrete; these piles are either
cast in-site or pre-casted to be
driven or drilled in soil according
to the pile type in order to reach hard layer of soil with sufficient
bearing capacity to support the structure and transfers loads to the
ground.
There are many types of piles and many piling methods, but the

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most widely used method for piling in Egypt is in-site rotary bored
piling; that is because it provides more tolerance in pile’s depth
and diameter as well as it can drill in hard soil such rocks for greater
depths, and it can bear heavy loads. CFA piling is also used but
when light loads are expected and used also for landscape projects,
both methods are categorized under the Bored piling, this type of
piling which depend on drilling the pile in-site and pour concrete in
the drilled cavity, unlike driven piling which depend on hammering
and vibrating a pre-casted pile in the soil, but this type of piling
results in excessive vibration in nearby area. The pile can be
classified into 2 main types according to the way it transfers loads;
it can either transfer loads through skin friction in loose soil or end-
bearing in hard soil such rocks. Bore piling has many challenges
such soil investigation which related to geophysical works using
borings to know soil properties to specify piles’ dimensions as well
as the appropriate methodology for piling on site. Now we will
discuss the construction procedures for the rotary bored piles
viewed on the high-speed train project.

➢ Construction procedure

1. After soil investigation process and obtaining soil’s

characteristics, the structural design department specifies the
optimum dimensions and depth of the piles in the foundation.
The foundation consists of 9 piles each of 1.2m in diameter
and ranges between (30~40) m, piles are distributed so that
the distance between the center lines of 2 different piles
equals 3.8m and the offset from the circumference piles
equals 1m. It is so important to take in consideration that
there are limitations in piling order such that there must be
minimum of 3~5 times pile diameter distance between 2
excavated piles to avoid collapse of soil, as a result the drilling
machine drills in 2 different foundation to seek high

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 productivity rate. The offset from circumference piles is
specified according to the excavator bucket width.

2. Site engineers receive the workshop drawings and according

to the site condition, pile depth, soil characteristics, facilities,
and nearby area they choose the best way for piling. Rotary
bore piling is always the best method for this type of projects,
since the soil is weak and compressible and bored piling
results in less vibration to the nearby area as well as it
provides diversity in pile’s dimensions and generally, piling is
much cheaper than replacing soil layers and compacting them
to get high bearing capacity.

Workshop drawing for a pile with reinforcement

3. The surveying works locate the piles centers and axes using
steel sticks driven in soil. As shown in figure there is a steel
stick which is used as a reference while installing the casing
unit to match the center through measuring the distance from
the stick to the casing circumference it should equal to the
same distance specified by the surveying department. These

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 sticks are placed using total station at control points (‫)الروبير‬.

Steel stick to determine pile Control point

place
4. Then the drilling machine drills about 4m in order to install
casing unit in soil at the pile center to guide the drill bucket
during drilling process and to stabilize the drilled shaft. This
casing unit made of steel, and it has a diameter of 1.3; the
casing unit could be temporary like the case viewed in the
project and it could be permanent if piles is excavated in sea,
rivers, or soils with high water table level.

Centering the casing while installation

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 5. While drilling the pile, a mixture of bentonite and water
prepared in specific tanks with proportion of 37.5kg bentonite
for each 1m3 of water; this mixture called bentonite slurry has
many essential roles in piling process:1. It supports the
excavation by exerting hydrostatic pressure on its walls to
prevent the collapse of wall sides and retain pile area, 2. It
acts as a sealant, 3. Suspend detritus and prevent sludgy
layers building up at base of excavation depending on its
viscosity, 4. The low density of this mixture compared to
reinforced concrete allows concrete to replace the bentonite
slurry while pouring process using tremie pipes. The bentonite
slurry is tested twice; first it is tested in fresh condition and
then tested when it fills the excavation, the results of tests
must be within the following ranges: PH (9~11), viscosity
(30~40sec) for fresh sample and (70sec in AVG.) for used
sample, density (<1.15 t/m3), and sand content for used
sample (<3%).

Bentonite slurry storage tank Bentonite slurry mixing tank

Bentonite slurry pouring

while drilling

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6. Detritus and suspended sand in bentonite slurry are cleaned
either by using desander or replace the whole bentonite
slurry. Both methods are used in site. However, replacement
method was preferred in many conditions. The old bentonite
is placed in a ditch and new slurry is pumped in the
excavation, then a pump car come to extract the slurry in
liquid state so that the remaining slurry are viscous and then
excavator mix this slurry with sand to be in hard state to be
loaded in trucks to be scraped in drainage.

Desander machine Bentonite slurry replacement

Ditch where old slurry is placed Pump car hoes extracting liquid slurry

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7. Reinforcement stage takes place once bentonite slurry is
cleaned or replaced. Steel cage assembly takes places in site.
It consists of multiple connections each of 12m they are
welded together while being installed using crane, the
smallest connection in length is preferred to be installed first,
then it is held in position by steel rebars supported on the
casing while the following connection is welded with it. The
last connection is attached to the casing unit using steel hook.
Pile is centered and keeps the concrete cover using concrete
hollow cylinders (‫ )البسكوته‬this cylinder has height equals to the
concrete cover which is 7.5cm, these concrete cylinders are
attached to the steel cage using steel sticks welded to the
cage.

Reinforcement cage assemblage area Hollow concrete cylinders

Pile concrete cover Welding process Steel hooks attached on

the casing
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Reinforcement Cage installation Welding cage connections

8. In each foundation there is a pile tested using ultrasonic

technology. Sonic integrity testing is a widely used method
for testing the quality of concrete piles in a non-destructive
way, in this test 4 steel access tubes are attached to the steel
cage. First these access pipes must be cleaned using cold
water to reduce to heat arises from hydration process then air
hose connected with compressor is driven in the tube bottom
to push the water outward, after tube is cleaned it is injected
by grout and the tube tops shall be capped to prevent debris
from entering the tubes. This test is called CSL (cross-hole
sonic logging) has many purposes as it checks pile damage,
excess water intrusion caving in in drilled shafts and
reinforcement cage buckling, and it
helps to detect early issues observed
in slurry walls and drilled shafts. The
log results evaluate unknown length
of piles, cross-sections, and
consistency of pile material. Tools
needed for this test are motion
transducer (shouldn’t be placed at
edges and must be vertical), hand-
held hammer, and data receiver unit.
Sonic access tubes

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9. Finally, concrete pouring stage; concrete mixers transfer the
mixed concrete from plants to site. The concrete pouring
process in piles differs from other concrete elements pouring
stage, that is because of the great depth of piles as it reaches
up to 36m in the project and it is recommended that the
highest free fall of concrete should not exceed 1.5m to avoid
segregation of concrete components, here comes the tremie
pipes role, these pipes are connected together till reaching
the required depth, the assembly consists of cone and pipe
sections each of 3 or 4m, then the concrete mixers pour the
mixed concrete in the cone, each concrete mixers can carry
up to 8~9 m3 , a concrete base with steel gates is placed over
the casing unit to avoid accumulation of concrete in the cone
and pipes, hand hammers is also used to help the flow in pipe.
A specific rope is used to measure the poured concrete depth
to measure if there is an excess in concrete amount as the
concrete is denser than the bentonite slurry different velocity
of the load at the end of the rope is recognized and the depth
is recorded from the marked rope. Concrete volume is greater
than pile volume by 2 m3 to ensure pure concrete is filling the
whole excavation. In tremie
pouring a specific proportion of the
last connection should be buried in
concrete to avoid caving and
separation in pile. To ensure the
concrete characteristics many
samples of the concrete cubes are
taken from every patch to be
tested in compression.

Concrete pouring process

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Concrete cubes used for testing Cone section of tremie Measuring concrete depth
in compression system in the excavation

In all these previous procedures there are consultants to follow up

the quality of all tasks and to manage any change in the project.
There are 2 contractor’s consultants in this project: The Arab
Contractors and SILGA CDG JV and the general contractor is
SYSTRA. There is a consultant for each type of work such surveying
consultant, concrete works consultant, and steel work consultant.

II. Pile cap

Pile cap is a structural member that is positioned and generally
attached to the pile top and pier bottom to act as a link between
them, pile cap looks like a concrete mat rests over the piles and it
has several functions such dispersing the single load of the pier
over the pile group as well as over a large area of bearing potential,
laterally strengthen separate piles and enhance complete durability
of the group, arranging the required combined resistance to stress

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organized by the super structure and ground movement,
transferring the loads of the building to the foundations and ground
soil despite loads are vertical or inclined, and facilitating the
superstructure to stay on a consistent and solid core rather than
staying directly on ground.
➢ Construction procedure
1. After piles hardened, the excavator excavates the area of
the pile cap and offset equals to the bucket width from
circumferential piles. Then, a 10cm layer of plain concrete
is poured to ease the working environment during the rebar
placement and pile head removal. Surveying works place
the pile cap boundary using total station and mark them
using steel sticks driven in the ground then they must
ensure the bottom of pile cap matches the specified level
in the workshop drawings using levels, the workers keep
digging and filling till the ground almost flat and has the
exact level in the drawings. After ground leveling and pile
cap boundaries are placed a plastic sheet is placed over the
ground to prevent the soil to extract the water from
concrete after being poured then the boundaries are
surrounded by muski wood and concrete mixers pour the
concrete to the top if the steel sticks.

Pile cap boundaries

Steel sticks for locating surrounded by muski wood Plastic sheet placed
the boundaries before plain concrete
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 2. After plain concrete layer is poured, pile head is removed
till the cut off level by either excavator with hammer head
or workers separate the concrete from the reinforcement
cage and then a crane lift the pile head. The remaining part
of reinforcement cage called the development length, this
part is interfered with the reinforcement of the pile cap and
the pier reinforcement to guarantee that they act as one
element. Piles are embedded 2m in pile cap.

Pile head tied up to be Pile head after removal Pile head removal by
lifted by crane excavator hammer

3. The formwork starts after the wastes of pile breaking

process are removed. Plywood supported with muski wood
and fixed by steel beams, is used in formwork because it
can withstand a lot of stress and full weather exposure, as
well as it is economical (can be used many times) and don’t
absorb water from concrete mixture. The side of the
plywood is where the concrete is poured. As concrete being
poured in the formwork it exerts pressure on its sides as a
result there are openings occur in them and concrete leaks
out which may cause honeycomb problems. Steel bars
welded in pile cap reinforcement and attached to the steel

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 beams supporting the muski wood decks are used for
countering the openings occurred in formwork during
concrete pouring stage, as well as through these steel
bars(‫ )الزراجين‬and bolts(‫ )العصافير‬we can adjust the verticality
of the pile cap formwork to reach the required tolerance.

Formwork of pile cap

Muski wood deck ‫الطبليه‬

Plywood surface Steel beam which the steel bars are

‫زراجين و عصافير الحكام الفورم‬
‫فتحات لمرور الزراجين‬
‫اثناء الصب‬
attached to and supporting muski wood
deck
‫الخشب االفقي يسمي الدكمه و المائل الشكال‬

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4. Then, pile cap rebars are placed. There are 3 main
elements in pile cap reinforcement: main rebars, shear
links, and clips. The bottom reinforcement consists of 2
layers of rebars with hooks(angles) in opposite directions
to resist flexural stresses, it is supposed that bigger
proportion of reinforcement placed in the main direction
and less in the secondary one, but in this project the pile
cap is almost squared so the loads will be distributed
uniformly in both directions. Additional rebars around the
pile was added due to the high stresses in this place. A
concrete hollow cylinders are attached to the bottom layer
of bars and to the hooks to guarantee the concrete cover.
Then, stirrups are placed around pile development
length(‫)سوست‬, and Pier dowel bars are placed and tied with
the bottom rebars. Column stirrups are then placed not just
around column circumference, but with additional links and
clips. Shear links are placed vertically to resist seismic
loads and 8 clips are placed around each pile to resist high
shear force in this place and to avoid punching shear, both
elements act as vertical stirrups to link between top and
bottom rebars. All rebars are tied up together using steel
wires and there are vertical and horizontal bars welded
together to ease the place the rebars in pile cap ( ‫القوايم و‬
‫)االوتار‬. After placing the top rebars 2 layers with the
additional rebars at piles locations, side face shear bars are
placed (‫ )البرندات‬to keep the rebars hooks (angles) vertical
and placed every 25cm and should be placed inwardly, but
to facilitate they are placed outwardly reducing concrete
cover.

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Bottom rebars hooks and steel wires Additional rebars at pile location Side face shear bars ‫البرندات‬

Reinforcement details
Bottom reinforcement Pile stirrups ‫السوست‬

Top rebars Clips at pile location Reinforcement workshop drawing

5. After the consultant approved the steel works, the pile cap
is ready for concrete casting stage. Concrete mixers charge
concrete into concrete pumps to pour it in the pile cap

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 formwork. Concrete samples are taken to be tested in
compression, each patch from concrete mixer should be
tested to ensure the quality of the concrete mixture. In
casting process vibrator is used to eliminate air bubbles by
vigorously shaking the freshly poured concrete, because
these bubbles weaken the concrete. The pump keeps
pouring concrete until reaching a wooden sign that specify
the reinforced concrete level(‫ )المتلوته‬and then workers level
the surface to be flat. After concrete pouring is finished, a
chemical substance called Antisol is applied to fresh
concrete surface to form impervious layer which protects
the concrete from rapid water evaporation during initial
curing stages. This evaporation would cause bleeding for
concrete which weaken the concrete as it forms air
channels in concrete.

Top rebars and concrete cover and string to locate Concrete being charged from
the axes mixer into the pump

Concrete pouring using pump Antisol spraying Vibrating fresh

on the surface concrete
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6. The last stage in pile cap construction is curing stage, after
the concrete hardened and formwork removed the steel
bars holding the formwork and steel beams together are
cut off, and plastic sheets are placed over the pile cap
surface and wet sand placed over it for 7 days at least to
prevent concrete bleeding as mass concrete structures
release high heat during hydration process, and then the
pile cap is covered by insulation material called bitumen.
After bitumen dried the backfilling begins, clean specific
sand is required for the backfilling process, and finally the
soil is compacted using compactor machine.

Bitumen barrels Steel bars cutting off Curing by plastic and wet sand
‫قص الزراجين‬ covering

Bitumen placed on pile Backfilling Compacting the soil

cap sides around pile cap
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III. Piers
Piers are concrete columns which support the spans of the bridge
and have the same function of piles, but they withstand the heavy
vertical loads from the superstructure and transfer these loads to
the pile cap to disperse them among the piles. Piers resist lateral
forces caused by seismic events as well.
➢ Construction procedure
1. First, workers use hammers to scratch concrete in the pier
area to increase the roughness of the concrete, hence
increase the bond between old and fresh concrete(‫)الزمبره‬.
Then, frame scaffoldings are placed over the pile cap to allow
workers to reach high locations, and to place the wooden
decks where the pier rebars will rest on until the concrete is
poured in the steel forms. Surveying works specify the levels
of the scaffoldings to reach the top level of piers as well as
marking the overlap points on the rebars.

Scaffolding frames (‫)الشبابيك‬ Overlap points

Full scaffolding system Concrete scratching (‫)الزمبره‬

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2. Pier dowels placed over the bottom rebars of pile cap differ in
their length (staggard connections) to avoid the presence of
weak pockets during jointing pier rebars and to guarantee
sufficient overlap length 1m or 65 times rebar diameter. The
pier in this project is rectangular with rounded edges. Wooden
decks are placed over the steel scaffoldings, these decks must
guarantee the verticality of rebars and to keep them in place
till concrete is poured; a test is carried out for this purpose
using rope with wooden piece and a cylindrical load at its end,
this load is suspended vertically from the edge of top wooden
deck to each of the other wooden decks’ tops, the edge of the
wooden piece should be matched with the edge of the
load(‫)خيط ميزان الشاغول‬. After making sure that wooden
decks(‫ )الحطه‬are placed accurately, the level of the decks are
adjusted to meet the top level of pier using wing nuts (‫)فتايل‬.
The pier rebars are lifted by crane and suspended to be
attached to pier dowels using steel wires. Then, pier stirrups
are distributed over the length (‫الكانات‬ ‫)تقسيط‬.

Wooden decks placed over scaffolding

Staggard connections

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 Pier rebars installation using crane Top view of pier RFT

Top wooden deck and steel arrangement

‫ميزان خيط الشاغول‬

Pier stirrups (‫)تقسيط الكانات‬

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 3. Special steel formwork is used for piers as it is economical
than using standard wood formwork. Steel formwork is
installed around the pier rebars with 5cm concrete cover, this
cover is set using concrete hollow cylinder (‫)البسكوته‬. Then,
reinforced concrete blocks are prepared and casted in site,
the function of these blocks is to support the jacks holding the
steel formwork; through these jacks we can adjust the
verticality of the pier to reach the required tolerance. Finally,
concrete is poured to a specific level and development length
(‫ )االشاير‬is left to be embedded in pier cap reinforcement.

Concrete block RFT Casted concrete block Pier concrete cover (‫)البسكوت‬

Pier steel formwork attached to

concrete blocks
‫زراجين و عصافير الحكام الفورم اثناء الصب‬

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These were the constructed elements in stage 1 while stage 2
includes pier caps and girders. There were a lot of problems
occurred during the construction process, some problems we be
discussed and how these problems were solved.

4) Construction problems
In construction process there were 2 fatal problems occurred
during training, but engineers managed to solve them efficiently;
the first problem was losing the rotary piling machine bucket in the
excavation at 13m depth, it was hard to extract the bucket out of
the excavation, this loss was estimated to be 900k L.E. The
problem was reported to the design department to re design the
distribution of the piles and they managed to displace the pile and
changing the pile cap dimensions and RFT to be able to withstand
the expected loads without any problems.
The second problem is common and has procedure to follow when
it happens, but it is fatal as it damages assets and waste money
as well; this problem is related to the form works, as concrete being
poured it exerts hydrostatic pressure on the form sides and if these
forms are not made properly according to the workshop drawings,
it results to openings in formwork and concrete collapse outside
the form. Once this happens forms
must be replaced, and all the
casted concrete should be flush
out and rebars should be
scratched out of the concrete.
Delaying the construction process
as well as mess up the site
working area make this problem
classified as a fatal one.

Plan of piles in the adjusted pile cap

where first problem occurred

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5) References
• https://www.alsina.com/en/bridge-construction-typology-the-piers/
• https://english.ahram.org.eg/News/467004.aspx
• https://theconstructor.org/others/bentonite-uses-
construction/13332/?amp=1

Training certificate

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