Installing Micropiles for an Elementary School

See how our team worked closely with a client to strengthen the soil beneath a planned elementary school.

Deep Foundations – Installing Micropiles

PROJECT OVERVIEW

The entire town of Joplin, Missouri, was left devastated as an EF5 tornado destroyed their town, including their elementary school. A local hospital wanted to help and donated land where an Elementary School was to be constructed.

REQUIREMENTS AND CHALLENGES

The design requirements for this project were compression loads up to 314 kips and tension loads up to 118 kips. Based on the load requirement and sub-surface conditions, CNC Foundations chose an end-bearing Micropile System, comprised of both cased and uncased micropiles. The cased Micropiles were required due to lateral concerns because of known abandoned mines and voids at particular locations.

SOLUTION AND RESULTS

CNC Foundations used 8 5/8 inch casing and drove down to the bedrock approximately 28 feet below the existing elevation and the casing was socketed into the rock.

Uncased micropiles were used to support the new foundation and grade beams. The uncased micropiles were open-hole drilled and used a down-the-hole-hammer to socket into rock. We used 3 different bar sizes due to the various loading requirements. Over 350 cubic yards of grout was used on this project.

We performed a sacrificial compression test with a total deflection of 0.200 inches and a sacrificial tension test and a total deflection of 0.644 inches to verify the loads. The project was completed on time and under budget.

Project Details

SECTOR
Elementary School Construction, Educational Facility

LOCATION
Joplin, MO

APPLICATION(S)
End-bearing Micropile System, Cased Micropiles, Uncased Micropiles

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