Use of Geospatial Project Information Management Systems on Diaphragm and Secant Pile WallsÂ-Paper

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The paper describes the use of Project Information Management Systems (PIMS) and geospatial tools to document and verify seepage barrier wall construction, including diaphragm panels, secant piles, and jet grout columns. As owners such as the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers increasingly specify data-management requirements, generic guidance developed by the Deep Foundations Institute aims to make these practices usable across the foundations industry.<br /><br />A PIMS brings construction and quality-control data together in a centralized relational database. Data may include element position and verticality, slurry quality, borehole geology, surveys, grout injection records, and photographs. The system makes these data available to project teams and owners through secure access, GIS viewers, reports, and drawings.<br /><br />GIS tools display proposed and completed elements in plan and profile views, including depth-specific wall sections, geological information, quality-control samples, grout records, and linked site photographs. Element-specific reports summarize installation details and illustrate deviations from vertical and overlaps between adjacent elements—key measures of whether the wall was built as designed and is likely to prevent leakage. Progress and as-built drawings provide periodic records of construction status and final geometry. Formal metadata document data sources, collection dates, coordinate systems, and processing assumptions.<br /><br />Experience across infrastructure projects suggests that these specifications improve data quality, help identify technical and management issues, streamline approvals, reduce owner workload, and support long-term project archiving and monitoring. The DFI PIMS Committee’s generic specifications are intended to help owners adopt consistent information-management practices with minimal effort.

Keywords

Project Information Management Systems

PIMS

geospatial tools

seepage barrier wall

diaphragm panels

secant piles

jet grout columns

quality control data

GIS viewers

as-built drawings