FOUNDATIONS (2) Deep Foundations

BUILDING TECHNOLOGY 05 Employed when the soil underlying a foundation is unstable or

Foundations
- Utilize a combination of bearing walls, columns, and
piers to transmit building loads directly to the earth.
- Can form various types of substructures.
- Lowest division of a building.
of inadequate bearing capacity. They extend down through
unsuitable soil to transfer building loads to a more
appropriate bearing stratum of rock or dense sands and
gravels well below the superstructure.

Substructure - constructed partly or wholly below the

surface of the ground. Its primary function is to support and
anchor the superstructure above and transmit its loads safely
into the earth.

Foundation System
- Serves as a critical link in the distribution and
resolution of building loads.
- Designed to both accommodate the form and layout
of the superstructure above and respond to the
varying conditions of soil, rock, and water below.
- (Principal loads) combination of dead and live loads
acting vertically on the superstructure.

Foundation System
- Must anchor the superstructure against wind-induced
sliding, overturning, and uplift.
- Withstand the sudden ground movements of an
earthquake
- Resists the pressure imposed by the surrounding soil
mass and groundwater on basement walls.
- To counter the thrust from arched or tensile
structures.
WALL FOOTING
(or Strip Footing) a continuous strip of concrete that serves
Superstructure - above NGL
to spread the weight of a load-bearing wall across an area of
Substructure - below NGL
soil.
3 TYPES OF SUBSTRUCTURE
Pad or spread and strip footings which are used to support
(1) Slab on Grade
structural or nonstructural walls to transmit and distribute the
Concrete slabs-on-grade supported directly by the earth and
loads to the soil in such a manner that the load-bearing
thickened to carry wall and column loads from an economical
capacity of the soil is not surpassed.
foundation and floor system for one- and two-story structures
in climates where little or no ground frost occurs.
COLUMN FOOTING
Usually a block of concrete is poured in the bottom of a hole
(2) Crawlspaces
so that the weight placed on the column can be distributed
Enclosed by a continuous foundation wall or piers provide
through a larger area.
space under a first floor for the integration of and access to
mechanical, electrical, and plumbing installations.

(3) Basements
Basements wholly or partly below grade require a continuous
foundation wall to hold back the surrounding earth and
support the exterior walls and columns of the superstructure
above.

Grid of independent piers or poles - can elevate the

superstructure above the surface of the ground.

TWO CLASSIFICATION OF FOUNDATION

(1) Shallow Foundations
Employed when stable soil of adequate bearing capacity
occurs relatively near to the ground surface.
They are placed directly below the lowest part of a
substructure and transfer building loads directly to the
supporting soil by vertical pressure.
REINFORCED CONCRETE COLUMN RETAINING WALLS
BUILDING TECHNOLOGY 05
Wood Posts
A variety of proprietary posts bases are available. Consult the History of Retaining Wall
manufacturer for allowable loads and installation details. Posts
bases can also be fabricated to satisfy specific design Retaining Walls
conditions. - Date back to ancient Egypt
- Used to harness the great power of the Nile River.
Steel Column
A steel base plate is necessary to distribute the column load Because of flooding and soil erosion, Egyptians built
over an area wide enough that the allowable stresses in the Gabion Style Retaining Walls from reeds to divert the flow
concrete are not exceeded. of water from the Nile into reservoirs as well as fields for
farming purposes.
Pile Column
While modern times have been innovations in the materials
used to build retaining walls, retaining wall applications have
largely remained the same:
- Preventing soil erosion
- Creating space and diverting water

“Gabion”
- Comes from the Italian word, (“gabbione” - big
cage).

[7000 years ago] early gabion type structures protected the

bank of river Nile.

[Middle Ages] gabions were used as military forts.

[Earlier History] civil engineers have extensively used

gabions for stabilization of banks, coasts, highways and
erosion control of slopes.

From the banks of river Nile, where they were created up to

today, gabion walls are a benefit for the landscape. It is used
for thousands of years as a gravity type retaining structure
and makes an attractive, efficient and cheap wall system.

Gabion Walls
Gabion walls are executed mainly for the purpose of soil
stabilization behind the wall, but it can also be executed as a
cover wall. The wall is made from gabion baskets that are
stacked in one or more rows, depending on the height of the
wall. Baskets have a cage shape and are closed on all sides.
They are made from a galvanized hexagonal meshes and
broken rock that are placed in the baskets. Retaining
structures are formed by stacking gabion baskets in a proper
schedule and present an alternative solution for concrete
structures in the area of soil stabilization.
 landscape needs to be shaped severely and
engineered for more specific purposes like
hillside farming or roadway overpasses.
● A retaining wall that retains soil on the
backside and water on the frontside is called a
seawall or a bulkhead.

(1) Row of Gabion Baskets - placed on a foundation

made from stone material or concrete, depending on
project requirements.

(2)Placed in a way that it is moved from the outer

edge toward the back in a certain distance.

(3) After completing the basket, the space behind

the basket is filled with a suitable material up to the
height of the upper gabion row.

Cyclopean Walls
“Cyclopean”, the term normally applied to the
masonry style characteristic of Mycenaean fortification
systems, describes walls built of huge.

Gravity walls depend on their mass (stone, concrete

Difference between ashlar, masonry (left) and
Cyclopean masonry (right), shown in the blue
rectangle; Lion Gate, Mycenae, 13th century BCE.
or other heavy material) to resist pressure from behind
and may have a 'batter' setback to improve stability by
leaning back toward the retained soil. For short
landscaping walls, they are often made from
mortarless stone or segmental concrete units (masonry
units). Dry-stacked gravity walls are somewhat flexible
and do not require a rigid footing.

Retaining Walls
● relatively rigid walls used for supporting soil
laterally so that it can be retained at different
levels on the two sides.
● structures designed to restrain soil to a slope
that it would not naturally keep to (typically a
steep, near-vertical or vertical slope).
● used to bound soils between two different
elevations often in areas of terrain possessing
undesirable slopes or in areas where the
Riprap (in North American English), also known as rip
rap, riprap, shot rock, rock armor (in British English) or
rubble, is human-placed rock or other material used to
protect shoreline structures against scour and water,
wave, or ice erosion.
Rip-rapped shoreline at Agua Vista park, San Francisco
Cantilevered retaining walls are made from an
internal stem of steel-reinforced, cast-in-place
concrete or mortared masonry (often in the shape of
an inverted T). These walls cantilever loads (like a
beam) to a large, structural footing, converting
horizontal pressures from behind the wall to vertical
pressures on the ground below.
Diaphragm walls are a type of retaining wall that are
very stiff and generally watertight. Diaphragm walls
are expensive walls, but they save time and space, and
hence are used in urban constructions.
Bored Pile Retaining Walls
Sheet pile retaining walls
● used in soft soil and tight spaces.
● Sheet pile walls are driven into the ground and
are composed of a variety of material including
steel, vinyl, aluminum, fiberglass or wood
planks.
● For a quick estimate the material is usually
driven 1/3 above ground, 2/3 below ground,
but this may be altered depending on the
environment.
● Taller sheet pile walls will need a tie-back
anchor, or "dead-man" placed in the soil a
distance behind the face of the wall, that is
tied to the wall, usually by a cable or a rod.
● Anchors are then placed behind the potential
failure plane in the soil.
● Built by assembling a sequence of bored piles,
followed by excavating away the excess soil.
Depending on the project, the bored pile
retaining wall may include a series of earth
anchors, reinforcing beams, soil improvement
operations and shotcrete reinforcement layer.
● This construction technique tends to be
employed in scenarios where sheet piling is a
valid construction solution, but where the
vibration or noise levels generated by a pile
driver are not acceptable.
Bored Pile Retaining Walls

Example of Cantilever Retaining Wall

Anchored Retaining Wall

● Can be constructed in any of the
aforementioned styles but also includes
additional strength using cables or other stays
anchored in the rock or soil behind it.
● Usually driven into the material with boring,
anchors are then expanded at the end of the
cable, either by mechanical means or often by
injecting pressurized concrete, which expands
to form a bulb in the soil.
● This method is very useful where high loads
are expected, or where the wall itself has to be
slender and would otherwise be too weak.