Helical piles – Foundation of a country house in Copacabana – Antioquia

Goals

Faced with geotechnical problems and the challenge of implementing special foundations for a two-story house with a metal structure, with the costs that this entails, the construction company KSAS sees the need to investigate cost-effective and technically supportable foundation alternatives for the development of its value proposition.

AXIATECH was contacted to provide an alternative in foundations, capable of meeting the load demands in a complex geotechnical environment, ensuring compliance with the regulatory requirements dictated by NSR-10.

The helical pile proposal was consolidated as the most viable alternative from the technical-economic balance, not only achieving but exceeding the performance required by the project, environment and client.

CONVENTIONAL SOLUTION

Due to the project conditions, the construction of pre-excavated piles (Caissons) of 1 m diameter and 8 m depth was considered, the associated cost of which dramatically increased the project budget and required the development of special activities with quite long associated times.

SOLUTION WITH HELICOIDAL PILES

Through the interaction between our engineering team and that of the construction company KSAS, we were able to calibrate a foundation and soil-structure interaction model through which the structure's loads were controlled in the complex geotechnical environment. The piles were designed based on the loads of each of the supports determined by the structural engineer, for the different combinations of acting loads (axial, lateral and moments), and control variables were determined to ensure the quality of each of the supports during construction.

This project is consolidated as a milestone in housing construction, considering that it has been the first house in Colombia founded on helical piles.

INSTALLATION

The foundation of the two-story house was built using a total of 16 piles with varying depths between 3.5 m and 12 m. The piles used had an external diameter of 3.5 inches and a thickness of 0.30 inches, with 3 helices of 8.10.12 inches in diameter.

The installation of the helical piles was completed in 2 working days, using conventional construction equipment.

Helical piles are established as an alternative for the construction of housing…

A.B. CHANCE – Hubbell Foundation

World leading manufacturers in the manufacture of helical piles, with more than 100 years of experience and history in foundation engineering solutions applying helical pile technology.