Piling in a Salt Crust

[kyoussef]

I have a soil formation consisting of very soft clay overlain by a salt crust with a thickness of about 3 meters. The ground water table is, more or less, above the salt crust surface. I am considering several deep-foundation systems to transfer the load to a more competent soil. One of the option is use engineered fill above the crust surface. The piles can then be drilled. Of course I expect a lot of construction problems in this option. My main concern is that the lateral capacity of pile in the fill zone would not be reliable due possible collapse of the salt-to-pile interface during drilling. Does any one have a better atlernative, or an innovative process to improve the lateral performance of such piles.