12/25/12 Update for E 156th and Beulah Park

We hope all are having a wonderful holiday with their friends and family.  For the remainder of the week, the contractor will continue with the site preparation work including the completion of the temporary sediment pond in the north west corner of the site.

Please keep in mind the that sidewalk is still closed on the west side of E 156th due to the ongoing activities withing the fenced in area but will be replaced in the future once all the heavy construction traffic is complete.  Also there may be short durations of traffic rerouting to allow for construction activities for the safety of the residents and the crews.  Any interruption will be kept short as possible.

12/20/12 Update for E 156th and Beulah Park

Based on some of the feedback from this week's community meeting, the contractor adjusted the security lighting in an attempt to redirect the light away from the houses in the area.  If the residents still have any concerns regarding this lighting, please let us know and we will see what can be done.

What is a secant pile shaft

There has been a lot of talk bout the secant pile shaft that will be installed at the Beulah Park and at last night's community meeting a few of the residents ask what exactly a secant pile was.  We will attempt to describe it here.

There are many ways to construct a large diameter shafts such as is being built for the ECT project.  Some of the methods are liner plates, ground freezing, jet grouting, diaphragm wall, sheet piles, solider piles and lagging and sinking caisson ( I could go on but there is no need to bore all of you).  The secant pile method was chosen for a variety of reasons including the applicability to the ground conditions at the site and  economics, site/job restrictions (time, amount of space at the site, proximity to residents and business).

This is an explanation of a secant pile from a general construction book:

Secant piles are constructed so that there is an intersection of one pile with another. The usual practice is to construct alternative piles along the line of the wall leaving a clear space of a little under the diameter of the required intermediate piles. The exact spacing is determined by the construction tolerances which can be achieved.

Concrete is added and the intermediate holes are drilled along a parallel, but slightly offset, line so that the holes cut into the first piles. The intermediate piles are placed through a heavy casing whose cutting edge is toothed and enables the casing to cut into the concrete of the initial piles on either side. Subsequent concreting results in a continuous wall. The concrete chosen will often have a slow rate of setting in order to ease the problem of cutting one pile into another.

Another way to look at a secant pile wall/shaft how they are being built for ECT, in general:

Drill a hole in the ground 4' in diameter that is 100' deep.  This hole will be lined at all times with casing (steel pipe) and the soil/rock will be removed with an auger (think really big drill bit).  Once the final depth is reached, fill up the inside of the casing with concrete and pull out the casing.  You are now left with a column of concrete that is 100' deep and 4' in diameter surrounded by soils.

Now move over so the center of the new hole being drilled is about 5' away from the previously drilled hole and repeat the process above.  This will leave 2 columns of concrete 100' deep 4' in diameter that are about 1' apart at their outside edges.  This process will be repeated 16 times.  At this point all that we have is 16 individual columns of concrete (piles) that are 100' deep and 4' in diameter that are all surrounded by soil and acting as 16 individual columns.

Now the cool things begin to happen.  A new pile is drilled in between the already installed piles and a portion of the original (primary) piles is removed.  The primary piles look like what is left over when you eat an apple, skinny in the middle and wider at the top and bottom.  So we now have a secondary pile drilled between two primary piles.  Once again the casing is filled with concrete and the casing is removed but in these secondary piles a steel reinforcing cage is lowered in place in the fluid concrete prior to the concrete hardening.  We now have a series of three secant piles and 15 other piles still just siting out there not doing much.  The pile installation will continue until all primary piles have secondary pile installed adjacent to them and a continuous wall has been formed for a depth of 100'.

Once all the individual piles have been installed and acting together we have a system that will protect our contractor as they work inside the shaft digging out the soil and rock getting down to the level of the tunnel.  There is a little more that goes into the design of the shaft like an evaluation of hoops stresses, effective earth pressure and other engineering geek talk.

     

December Community Meeting

Thank you very much to everyone who attended last night's Euclid Creek Tunnel Community Meeting.  The PowerPoint presentation we shared with the group is posted below.



The presentation from November is posted as well.


Our next Community Meeting will be on Tuesday, January 15, 2013. We will meet at the Cleveland Public Library's Memorial-Nottingham Branch (17109 Lakeshore Blvd.) at 6 p.m.  See you then!

Happy Holidays!

12/18/12 Crane Delivery

The first large piece of equipment was delivered to day to Site 3-1.  This crane is the support crane for the secant pile operation.  Tomorrow, the actual secant pile rig will be delivered.  This piece of equipment is slightly larger that the crane delivered today and a slight disruption of traffic may be experienced. 

12/13 Update

The secant pile contractor will begin mobilizing to the site next week.  A 100 ton crane will be delivered on Tuesday the 18th.  This crane will come on a few trucks and will be assembled once on site.  Later in the week, the secant pile rig (Bauer BG40) will be delivered.  There may be some slight traffic interruptions with the trucks making their way to the site, please drive with care.

Please keep in mind the that sidewalk is still closed on the west side of E 156th due to the ongoing activities withing the fenced in area but will be replaced in the future.  Also there may be short durations of traffic rerouting to allow for construction activities for the safety of the residents and the crews.  Any interruption will be kept short as possible.

Safety Update

There have been reports from our contractors that vehicles along E156 have been speeding down this road and driving aggressively.  It is imperative for the safety of our workers, the residents of the area and anyone else that may be in the vicinity that not only good driving habits be practiced but also courtesy and respect.  As all know, E 156th is a very short street and excessive speed can be extremely dangerous to all.

12/10/12 Update for E 156th and Beulah Park

Expect things to be a little quite for the next few days at the 3-1 site; the guide wall has been installed and is curing.  The secant pile contractor should be mobilizing to the site in the next few weeks, we will certainly keep everyone posted regarding this as some of the truck used to drop off the equipment are big ones may affect traffic routes for a day or two. 

Please keep in mind the that sidewalk is still closed on the west side of E 156th due to the ongoing activities withing the fenced in area but will be replaced in the future.  Also there may be short durations of traffic rerouting to allow for construction activities for the safety of the residents and the crews.  Any interruption will be kept short as possible

12/5/12 Update for E 156th and Beulah Park

The work at the intersection of E156th and Lakeshore finished up sooner than expected, the contractor has left the area and taken all of his toys (heavy equipment and such) over to St. Clair and Nottingham.  We will be back in the E156th/Lakeshore area, but not for a few months.

The construction of the guide wall will continue through the end of the week at the 3-1 site.

I have been told that many of our readers would like to know more about the secant pile wall that will be installed at 3-1.  I will attempt to detail this process next week.

Please keep in mind the that sidewalk is still closed on the west side of E 156th due to the ongoing activities withing the fenced in area but will be replaced in the future.  Also there may be short durations of traffic rerouting to allow for construction activities for the safety of the residents and the crews.  Any interruption will be kept short as possible

12/4/12 Update for E 156th and Beulah Park

The installation of the fence, gates and privacy barrier have been installed around the 3-1 work area.  The contractor is in the process of constructing the guide wall for the secant pile wall.  This guide wall's purpose is to act as a template for the installation of the secant piles and to help keep the piles straight and plumb as they are drilled.  There will be a few trucks of concrete delivered to the site tomorrow for the completion of this guide wall.

Work continues at the intersection of East 156th and Lakeshore and last through mid December. 

Please keep in mind the that sidewalk is still closed on the west side of E 156th due to the ongoing activities withing the fenced in area but will be replaced in the future.  Also there may be short durations of traffic rerouting to allow for construction activities for the safety of the residents and the crews.  Any interruption will be kept short as possible