Design and construction of driven piles on the East Coast of Australia

Henry Zhang

November 22, 2018

Large diameter (> 900 mm) driven tubular steel piles have become increasingly popular for the support of buildings, bridges and other structures in recent years. This is largely due to their relative ease of installation, and comparatively high capacity and low cost. Such piles have played an important role in the completion of the large number of bridges within the Pacific Highway upgrade project. This presentation will discuss a number of case histories where driven steel tubular piles have been utilised within recent highway upgrade projects, specifically at sites across the East Coast of Australia. Common practice, challenges with design, installation and quality assurance via Pile Dynamic Analyzer (PDA) test and pile dynamic monitoring (PDM) will be discussed; the drivability, unit shaft and base resistance in soil, weak rock and hard rock as indicated from PDA tests will be discussed and compared with published data.