Coffer Dam Design / Sheet Pile Design Resources
Coffer Dam Design / Sheet Pile Design Resources
(OP)
I need to design a small coffer dam in relatively shallow water to allow the removal and replacement of a badly deteriorated bridge pier.
I'm looking for available design resources for the design of the sheet pile coffer dam. (Total water depth is probably about 2 feet, soil is muck, existing pier is built on piles.)
Anyone know of any good resources out there?
Design Programs?
Text books with lots of good examples?
Also, need sheet piles that when drive will be water tight. I am aware that there were or are sheet piles from Belgium I believe that are water tight.
I'm looking for available design resources for the design of the sheet pile coffer dam. (Total water depth is probably about 2 feet, soil is muck, existing pier is built on piles.)
Anyone know of any good resources out there?
Design Programs?
Text books with lots of good examples?
Also, need sheet piles that when drive will be water tight. I am aware that there were or are sheet piles from Belgium I believe that are water tight.





RE: Coffer Dam Design / Sheet Pile Design Resources
I use pilebuck sheet pile program. You can enter the soil data as it is. Enter the active and passive water data. Select you sheet type. And add walers if necessary. It checks the stress in the sheeting, and give you a FS for the soil failure. However, you do need to check basil heave if the soil is "muck" as you say it is. My foundations book by Das has a section on basil heave, I belive most good soils books will have this.
RE: Coffer Dam Design / Sheet Pile Design Resources
RE: Coffer Dam Design / Sheet Pile Design Resources
http://www.slideruleera.net/Steel-Piling.html
Don't let the 2 foot depth of water water lull you into thinking that the pressure to be resisted will be minimal. Since you describe the soil as "muck" you will have the combined pressure of water and saturated soil to resist. If the muck has considerable depth (which it probably does), cofferdams under these conditions have to be more robust than in water alone.
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RE: Coffer Dam Design / Sheet Pile Design Resources
SlideRuleEra is correct. Also, if the new bridge footing has battered piles, the sheet piling may need to be installed farther away from the footing so that the battered piles can be driven without hitting the sheets.
Also consider any fluctuation in the depth of the water during the time the cofferdam will be in service. Will a rain storm cause the cofferdam to be overtopped? You may need to design the cofferdam for a couple extra feet of water.
RE: Coffer Dam Design / Sheet Pile Design Resources
you can seal them with certain cement products, and several acrylic compounds, not to forget asphalt coatings. Making them totally waterprooof would be very expensive but you can probably reduce the flow to a minimum. There are products that will plug flowing water.
Intrusion Prepakt /marineconcrete.com
RE: Coffer Dam Design / Sheet Pile Design Resources
We also use pilebuck sheet program.
RE: Coffer Dam Design / Sheet Pile Design Resources
RE: Coffer Dam Design / Sheet Pile Design Resources
RE: Coffer Dam Design / Sheet Pile Design Resources
Be warned... the more that foreign matter that either flows into or is put in the interlock to seal it can make extraction of (temporary) sheeting very difficult. Sometimes it is just better to let the interlock leak and endure a lot of pumping if you want to make sure you can recover the sheeting.
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RE: Coffer Dam Design / Sheet Pile Design Resources
The old bridge pier is built on timber piles. We know this as we have excavated down beside the old pier and could see the timber piles. (Did this during low tide).
I did not think of the issue of battered piles. That is an excellent point. Thanks very much.
I have NO EXISTING DRAWINGS for this bridge (substructure at least) I is a second generation bridge and was probably built around 1915 or so.
Here is a link to a photo of the existing pier....
http:/
http://i24
RE: Coffer Dam Design / Sheet Pile Design Resources
http://www.nasspa.com/technical.php
RE: Coffer Dam Design / Sheet Pile Design Resources
RE: Coffer Dam Design / Sheet Pile Design Resources
RE: Coffer Dam Design / Sheet Pile Design Resources
Just a few thoughts.
RE: Coffer Dam Design / Sheet Pile Design Resources
http://www.adeka.com/Sheet_Pile.html
I have not used it but I would expect it to keep the clutches unclogged for easy extraction.
Stephen Argles
Land & Marine
www.landandmarine.com
RE: Coffer Dam Design / Sheet Pile Design Resources
I do not suspect that the existing timber piles have failed in any way
We have also done 2 boreholes around the pier to determine soil characteristics for coffer dam design.
We are in the process of coring through the pier to determine if there is a timber matt under the existing concrete pier.
The plan right now is to:
1. Temporarily join the two spans together
2. Shore the bridge superstrucutre for dead load
3. Drive sheet piles to form a coffer dam
4. Remove the existing pier completely
5. Install steel pony bents to allow the train to pass
6. Form and pour new pile cap and new pier
7. Unbolt spans.
RE: Coffer Dam Design / Sheet Pile Design Resources
RE: Coffer Dam Design / Sheet Pile Design Resources
RE: Coffer Dam Design / Sheet Pile Design Resources
Other information can be gained from Robert Ratay's Handbook of Temporary Construction and some years ago, Hartman Engineering did a seminar on Cofferdam design and so there may be several publications out there from that. Hartman is a respected Cofferdam design firm.
Regards,
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