History of Steel Piles

[bjl14]

I'm working on a project where our earth retention system comprises of steel soldier piles with wood lagging and tiebacks. One of the buildings bordering our site is on a stone foundation and was probably built in the early 1900s, but we have no documents concerning the building's foundation and the owners of the building have no plans. Even the permitting office of the city is of no help. All I want to do is figure out the likelyhood that the foundation under the building is deep or not, and if it is, what kind of deep foundation. My question is...when were steel piles put into use first? Someone has to know. I'm assuming that if any, this building has wood piles, but who knows. I just don't want to drill under the building for the tie-backs without a good idea of what's underneath. Thanks.

 

[PEinc]

Be careful with sheeting walls next to existing buildings (especially soldier beams and lagging). If the building is supported by piles or some other type of deep foundation, you may be OK. However, if the building is close to the excavation and is supported by spread footings or by deep foundations that do not extend deep enough, you may need to use a different excavation support system or a tiedback underpinning system. Sheeting is by definition a relatively flexible structure which is not intended to support buuildings with little or no movement.

If you don't have plans for the existing building, you may need to dig a few exploratory test holes to determine the foundation type.

 

[bjl14]

well we're well below the foundation if it is indeed spread footings, but it's a six story building, so that is what perplexes me because that is tall enough that it may have deep foundations, but still could be supported by spread footings. i just want to know how likely it is that there are steel piles. when were the first steel piles used? there's gotta be some history somewhere

 

[SlideRuleEra]

Cast iron and/or wrought iron structural shapes: about 1880

Steel structural shapes: about 1899

Steel H-Pile: 1908

Above dates are from page 2 of "Bethlehem Steel H-Piles", published about 1965. You can download a .pdf copy from this page of my website

http://www.slideruleera.net/Steel-Piling.html

Happy New Year!

http://www.SlideRuleEra.net