Most excavations require some form of dewatering, or extraction of water from the excavation or surrounding soil.

During construction, excavations must be kept free of standing water. Such water may come from :

-PRECIPITATION
IT MAY COME FROM GROUND-WATER SEEPAGE originating from any of a number of sources, such as -surface water percolating through the Soil -underground streams, -perched water moving over impervious soil strata -adjacent permanently saturated soil areas where the excavation extends below the water table. The most common method of dewatering is to run water by pumping as it accumulates in pits, called sumps, created at low points in the excavation. This can be done either by pumping water from the surrounding soil to depress the water table below the level of the bottom of the excavation or by erecting a watertight barrier, such as a slurry wall, around the excavation

BUILDING CONSTRUCTION

DEWATERING

ATUL ANAND JHA TAUSEEF AHMED B.ARCH. III A

Well points are commonly used to depress the water table. These are vertical sections of pipe with screened openings at the bottom that keep out soil particles while allowing water to enter. Closely spaced well points are driven into the soil around the entire perimeter of the excavation. These are connected to horizontal header pipes leading to pumps that continually draw water from the system and discharge it away from the building site. Once pumping has drawn down the water table in the area of the excavation, work can continue in the dry. For excavations deeper than the 20 feet (6 m) or so that cannot be drained by a suction pump stationed at ground level, two rings of well points may be required, the inner ring being driven to a deeper level than the outer ring, or a single ring of deep wells with submersible force pumps may have to be installed.

In some cases, well points may not be practical: they may have insufcient capacity to ensure that an excavation remains dry; restrictions on the disposal of groundwater may limit their use; reliability due to power outages may be a concern; or lowering of the water table may have serious adverse effects on neighboring buildings by causing consolidation and settling of soil under their foundations or by exposing untreated wood foundation piles, previously protected by total immersion in water, to decay. In these cases, a watertight barrier wall may be used as an alternative (Figure 2.26). Slurry walls and soil mixed walls can make excellent watertight barriers. Sheet piling can also work, but it tends to leak at the joints. Soil freezing is also possible. In this method, an array of vertical pipes similar to well points is used to continuously circulate coolant at temperatures low enough to freeze the soil around an excavation area, resulting in a temporary but reliable barrier to groundwater. Watertight barriers must resist the hydrostatic pressure of the surrounding water, which increases with depth, so for deeper excavations, a system of bracing or tiebacks is required. A watertight barrier also works only if it reaches into a stratum of impermeable soil such as clay. Otherwise, water can ow beneath the barrier and rise up into the excavation.

Slurry wall and tieback construction used to support historic buildings around a deep excavation for a station of the Paris Metro.

Installing tiebacks. (a) Drilling through a slurry wall for a tieback. The ends of hundreds of completed tiebacks protrude from the wall.