Emergency Response – How Grouting Methods Have Come to The Rescue-PPT Presentation

PPT Presentation

Pdf Summary

The presentation describes how grouting methods can help manage construction emergencies involving safety risks, ground loss, infrastructure movement, or loss of an excavation.<br /><br />At a new pump station, sheet piles encountered obstructions and did not reach full depth. Despite using a gravel blanket and sumps to control inflow, the excavation suffered a blow-in and was lost. The team flooded the excavation, evacuated people and equipment, monitored a nearby sewer, and prepared a drill platform. A tangent pile wall replaced the shortened sheet piles, while low-mobility grouting improved the ground.<br /><br />For an environmental cleanup project, jet grouting was selected because the schedule was critical, a low-permeability layer was available for a base, and the soils were unsuitable for permeation grouting. The existing excavation served as a spoils pit, with precautions taken for work near a river.<br /><br />Along an interstate, sinkholes and probe drilling revealed voids beneath travel lanes. The response combined culvert slip-lining with low-mobility grouting at three locations.<br /><br />At a leaking cutoff wall around a deep excavation, permeable soils and nearby sensitive structures increased the risk. The repair used recharge wells and interior wellpoints to manage groundwater, chemical and cement grouts to stop major leaks, and permeation grouting to create a cutoff. Deep tube-à-manchette (TAM) pipes and additional targeted grouting addressed gravel zones and voids. Recharge wells were shut down after about one-quarter of the grouting was complete; the work ultimately used 200 TAM pipes, 100,000 gallons of cement grout, and 200,000 gallons of sodium silicate.<br /><br />Together, the case studies show that emergency grouting is not one technique but a tailored combination of methods selected to control water, stabilize ground, and protect infrastructure.

Keywords

grouting

construction emergency

ground loss

sheet piles

jet grouting

sinkholes

cutoff wall

permeation grouting

low-mobility grouting

infrastructure stabilization