Damages due to driving Wood piles

[jim57]

A new house is being constructed next to my client. They drove piles in the rain and crushed the pile tops. Piles were as close as 15' away. Reported damages consist of cracked concrete driveway and walkway. Both houses are on the water in a sandy location. Client's house is constructed on piles. Crawlspace slab appears to have cracked along foundation walls.

No monitoring was conducted during pile driving. Is there any literature discussing damages in order of expectations. eg glass breaks before wood before concrete. My other concern is the vibrations may cause the soil to consolidate under the driveway and crawlspace slab. Is pile driving different than blasting damages?
Thanks

 

[hokie66]

Pile driving in areas as you described, sandy soil and near water, can certainly cause consolidation 15' away, especially if the sand was in a loose condition. But without any preconstruction information, you owner is probably up the creek without a paddle.

 

[Ron]

Agree with hokie66. If they are still driving piles, stop them until a monitoring scheme, including shutdown triggers, is put in place. Go to Florida DOT website for some good guidelines on pre-inspection, monitoring and post-inspection

 

[Ron]

Also....blast monitoring is different than pile driving vibration monitoring. Blast monitoring has a stronger airborne sound vibration component than pile driving. Both have ground vibration transmission but at different frequencies andmagnitudes.

Also..the rain is irrelevant.

 

[jim57]

It's too late. All pile driving is complete. I do not think New Jersey has any monitoring requirements. Trying to assess after the fact. It doesn't look good for my client. Not certain how I can give anything more than an opinion. And their engineer will have an opinion.

 

[oldestguy]

I'd examine the damaged area for displacement laterally or even heave. Displacement piles push soil sideways and up.

 

[msquared48]

Points to make or consider:

1. The damage was not present before the pile driving occurred - can you document this?

2. The damage was noted during the pile driving process - is this documented?

3. After the pile driving was stopped, are there subsequent pictures where a progressive damage can be seen between points 2 and 3?

4. Was the pile driver or contractor notified of the damage, but kept driving pile anyway?

5. Did you ever notify the local building department of the damage during the pile driving process?

6. Could the piles have been overdriven (crushed pileheads), to the point of transmitting a different frequency to the soil matrix?

7. If there was a chance of this occurring, I have no idea other than cost, contractor expertise, or equipment availability why an augercast system was not used instead.

Mike McCann, PE, SE (WA)

 

[Ron]

All good points by Mike. Also, the cracks in the concrete driveway can be checked to see if they are recent or old. If old, you're out of luck on that one. If new, you might have something. Requires someone with experience in this type of evaluation. It is a form of petrographic evaluation, though not necessary to go to usual petrographic extent.

 

[BigH]

Ron - you took my thunder! Someone experienced can usually tell if cracks/displacements, etc are "very recent" or "older" - this might help. Would anyone have taken some photographs before the piling? Perhaps a neighbour taking snaps at a BBQ might have some of the injured party's site . . .

 

[Brad805]

I would suggest your client start scouring for pictures of the property prior to the damage. Property sales, google earth street view, and any other social media places you can find where someone might post an exterior picture that could contain usable info.