Pile Driving and Installation

Installation of Piles: Installation of piles shall be as accurate as possible and as per design and drawings. The vertically or the required batter should be correctly maintained. Particular care shall be taken in respect of installing either single pile or piles in two pile groups.

Deviation /Tolerance

(i)  The deviation/tolerance should be as per IS 2911 (Part 1/Sec.1). The piles should not deviate more than 75 mm or D/4 whichever is less (75 mm or D/10 whichever is more in case of piles having diameter more than 600 mm) from their designed position at the working level.

(ii)  In case of a single pile under a column, the positional deviation should not be more than 50 mm or D/4 whichever is less (100 mm in case of piles having diameter more than 600 mm. Greater tolerance may be prescribed for piles driven over water and for raking piles.

Sequence of Installation: Normal sequence of installation of pile group is from the centre to the  periphery  of  the  group  or  from  one  side  to  the  other.  Particular  care  shall  be  taken  to  avoid damaging the already cast pile while driving a fresh tube nearby before the concrete  has sufficiently set. The possibility of the pile getting damaged is more in compact soils than in loose soils.

Driving a  Group of Friction Piles

(i)  The skin friction increases considerably when the pile bore is driven in the loose sand as the pile tends to compact the sand. Therefore in such cases the order of installation shall be altered so that a compact block is not created where driving further pile bore will not be possible. Similar  precaution  will  have  to  be  taken  where  stiff  clay  or  compact  sand  layers  will  have  to  be penetrated.

(ii)  However driving the pile bore from centre outwards or commencing at a particular selected edge or even working across the group the problem pointed out in Para (I) above can be avoided.

(iii) In case of very soft soil it is advisable to start driving the bore hole from outside to inside so that

the soil gets restrained from flowing out during operation.

Procedure of Pile Driving

(i)  Driven cast-in-situ concrete piles are installed by driving a metal casing with a shoe at the tip/toe and displacing the material laterally.

(ii)  These piles may be cast in metal shells which may remain permanently in place or the casing

may be withdrawn which may be termed as uncased driven cast-in-situ cement concrete piles.

(iii) The metal casing shall be of sufficient thickness and strength to hold in original form and show

no harmful distortion when the adjacent casing is driven and the driving core if any is withdrawn.

(iv) Driven cast-in-situ concrete piles shall be installed using a properly designed detachable shoe at

the bottom of the casing.

(v)  Any liner or bore hole; which is temporarily located and shows partial collapse that would affect the load carrying capacity of the pile, shall be rejected or repaired as directed by the Engineer-in Charge.

20.1.3.6 A proper record of pile driving and other details such as depth driven, sequence of installation in a group, cut off level/working level shall be mentioned in sequence of occurrence worksheet for the inspection of Engineer-in-charge.