Artificial Fill
Artificial Fill
(OP)
In ASCE Manuals and Reports on Engineering Practice - No. 56 "Subsurface Investigation for Design and Construction of Foundations of Buildings," there is a section on Artificial Fill that states that "Unless the conditions and control under which it was placed are fully known, fill should be presumed unsatifactory." This book was published in 1976 and I was wondering if anyone is aware of a more recent publication that states something similar. Thanks





RE: Artificial Fill
RE: Artificial Fill
Kevin P. Morrow, P.E.
Senior Geotechnical Engineer
D Miller & Associates, PA
RE: Artificial Fill
I've seen numerous sites where "reputable" real estate brokers, contractors and even owners have adamantley defended the quality of fill and workmanship performed years before on property, and then during final site development find unsuitable fill material, debris, bury pits, and even old automobiles. When that happened the owner, contractor and other parties tended to look toward their geotechnical engineer that presented such an opinion, primarily to contribute to relief of the problem.
Since the propety seller/buyer and/or developer is in essence making money by not spending money to construct such fill to engineered standards (observation, tests, and documetation) and you by accepting this assignment are transfering risk to you (through your opinion), make sure you have a clear written agreement that will stand up in court as to who will be responsible for addressing delays and additional engineering and/or construction on the project.
RE: Artificial Fill
by the way, i've seen many big projects be graded and sit for years. as part of that development, the not-so-good stuff (topsoil, strippings,etc) get wasted in "non-structural landscape" areas. then 10 years later, no one seems to remember that and you end up with a building on the area. and sometimes, even when you absolutely know the stuff is there, you have a very hard time hitting it was borings or even test pits.
ibc requires observation of new fill placement along with testing at regular intervals. so i suspect that it will soon actually be enforced more widespread as part of the permit...it already is in some/many areas. it also requires a soil report of subsurface conditions.
RE: Artificial Fill