ELAPSED TIME-Years

I I I t I l 1 1
10 I I I , , , ,
100
Can. Geotech. J. Downloaded from www.nrcresearchpress.com by 68.148.154.147 on 06/27/20

EXCAVATION
IN 1914

1.16 ft/Iog cycle

0.40 ft110g cycle

108.0
For personal use only.

JAN 1.1905 JAN 1.1914

FIG. 2. Observed settlement of point C related to logarithm of time -enlarged scale.

performed at room temperature; accordingly,
the laboratory values of Ca were obtained at
temperatures about 15-20 O F higher than
those extant in situ. Considering these un-
certainties, the apparent agreement cited in
the Paper does not increase the Writer's
confidence in the reliability of routine methods
for estimating rates of secondary consolidation.
The romance and challenge of foundation
engineering at the turn of the century 'seeps
through' virtually every line in the Paper.
One wonders what the designers of the Em-
press Hotel would have recommended were
they privy to current knowledge of soil
mechanics - and had estimated that the
south end of the Main Building would settle
4 ft with respect to the North Wing some 10
years after construction, and that an addi-
tional foot of differential settlement would
occur in the ensuing 20 years.

The Empress Hotel, Victoria, British Columbia. Sixty-Five Years

of Foundation Settlements:' Closure
C. B. CRAWFORD
Divisioli of Bl~ildilzgResearch, Na/ional Researclz Corrticil of Canada, O//awa, Calrada K I A OR6
Received October 20, 1972
Accepted October 23, 1972

The authors appreciate the comments of recent issues of this journal. Mr. Keene
Messrs. Keene, Walker, and Leonards in (1971) drew attention to the lack of agree-
ment on the definition of secondary consolida-
tion . I n this the coefficient of secOn-
lPaper by Crawford, C. B., andsutherland, J.G., Can.
Geotech. J . , 8(1), pp. 77-93, 1971. dary consolidation is defined as the amount

Canadian Gcoteclinicnl Journal, 10. 122 (1973)

 DISCUS S I O N S 123

of compression relative t o the original thick- correct on the right-hand side. T h e elevation
ness (i.e. before primary) in percent per log of point "C" in 1912 is 108.82 ft (33.17 m )
cycle of time. and of point "F" is 108.94 ft (33.20 m).
In response to Dr. Walker's request (1971) In 1967, "C" is a t 108.06 ft (32.936 m)
1 present Fig. 17 to show typical settlement a n d "F" is at 108.08 ft (32.942 m). It should
measurements to a large scale. In the secon- also be noted that a t the end of the section
dary range, the settlement measurements o n "settlement contours" (p. 86 in o u r paper)
show a linear relationship with time o n a it is point "Q" rather than point "C" which
Can. Geotech. J. Downloaded from www.nrcresearchpress.com by 68.148.154.147 on 06/27/20

semi-log plot. In our paper we noted (p. 93) is assumed t o have settled 0 . 3 ft (0.06 m).
that " computed rates of primary consolida- In his discussion, Professor Leonards
tion were t o o far from reality to be usefully raises the following points :
considered". Rough calculations based on (1) Loading is not simple during the
the Terzaghi theory indicated that 9OCj{ of initial construction stage (1904-05).
primary consolidation would require a b o u t
(2) Immediate rebound a n d immediate
50 years, five or six times the observed time.
settlement may be significant.
In view of the uncertainties of the actual
boundary conditions, especially with respect (3) Negative skin friction is a considera-
t o drainage, n o effort was made t o introduce tion.
more sophisticated methods of computing (4) Primary consolidation before Decem-
primary rate. ber 1905 has been overestimated.
Professor Leonards has taken a particular (5) Secondary consolidation was three
interest in the study. His d i s c u ~ s i ~inn this rimes as fast in the early stages as in the
For personal use only.

issue (Leonards 1973) follows considerable late stages.

private correspondence in which he has raised
many questions. From a careful examination
of the time-settlement curves presented in
o u r Fig. 9, he noticed a n anomaly that proved
t o be due t o a n error in the figure. On the
left-hand side, the letters "C" a n d "F"
have been transposed, although they are
(6) Secondary consolidation should not
be computed on the basis of the full
50-ft (15.2-m) layer of soft clay because
the piles penetrate almost t o the middle
of the layel-.
(7) Testing temperature influences the
laboratory values of C,.

1911 1916 1921 1926 1931 1941 1951 1961 1971

END OF YEAR

F IG. 17. Observed settlement related to logarithm of time.

 124 C.-IN. GEOTECH.
These will be dealt with in order.
(1) The total stress changes above eleva-
tion 70 were certainly not simple during the
initial construction stages. Further, there is
very little basis for assessing the way in which
loads are transmitted from the piles to the
ground. Nevertheless, i t was assumed in the
analysis that the stress changes in the com-
Can. Geotech. J. Downloaded from www.nrcresearchpress.com by 68.148.154.147 on 06/27/20
pressible layer, from elevation 50 to elevation
0, were relatively simple because of the large
area that was filled. Even after the building
loads were applied, there was only a small
variation between the stresses under the build-
ing and adjacent to it. The variations in total
stresses in the upper layers during 1904 and
1905 were substantial, but in the middle of
the compressible layer, at elevation 25, the
changes in the effective stresses were consider-
ed to be gradual and uniform.
(2) Rebound would tend to occur in the
dredged fill when the site was excavated to
elevation 76, but this would be confined to
For personal use only.
the upper few feet. Some immediate settle-
ment would also occur when the site was
reloaded, but this would not have a major
influence on the settlement of the foundation
walls, because lateral movements in the soil
are not expected to occur when the loaded
area extends a considerable distance on both
sides.
(3) Negative skin friction or downdrag
is not a factor in this case because the piles
0.04 - -
- I I I I I
1915 1920 1925 1930
FIG. 18. Settlement of point Q.
are constantly being forced into the ground
by the settlement of the pile caps. Downdrag
can occur only when the sun-ounding soil is
settling at a !greater rate than the piles<usually
end-bearing piles).
(4) The primary consolidation before De-
cember 1905 mav well be over estimated. The
reliability of the estimated curve from point
"P" to the first measurements in 1912 (Fig.
11) can be defended. but there is little rational
basis for the earlier portion. I believe, liow-
ever, that Professor Leonards' estimate of
"less than one foot" ( < 0 . 3 m) is conservative.
(5) It is not satisfactory to draw conclu-
sions regarding secondary rates on the basis
of selected measurements, as the measure-
ments are not sufficiently accurate. Although
the reference bench mark is on a bedrock
outcrop adjacent to the hotel, there are ob-
vious minor inaccuracies in surveying. This
is illustrated by examining an enlarged plot
of the level observations on point "Q"
where the foundation piles bear on gravel
(Fig. 18). Here it is seen that an error of
+ 0.015 ft (+ 0.0046 m) must be accepted,
and further that the downward trend ending
in 1934 was immediately followed by an up-
ward trend. As no rational explanation can
be given for these trends, it must be assumed
that they were due to small levelling errors.
The application of corrections u p to f 0.015
ft (f0.0046 m) to measured elevations
I I I I I I I
1935 1940 1945 1950 1955 1960 1965 1970
END OF YEAR
 DISCIJSSIONS 125

substantiates the smoothed curves shown in
Fig. 17. It is interesting to note that point
"Q" appears to settle slowly, presumably
due to creep at the pile tip where .stresses are
high.
(6) The decision to use the entire 50-ft
(15.2-m) layer of soft gray, silty clay in com-
puting consolidation settlements was based
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cessarily reasonable to use the full depth for
assessing secondary consolidation. Unfor-
tunately, Bozozuk's observations do not yet
indicate how large the relative movement
must be to reduce the skin friction to the
remoulded strength. If the piles become more
effective in transmitting load to the soil when
the secondary stage is reached, this can be

on the following reasoning. It was known
from current field observations by the Division
of Building Research (National Research
Council of Canada) that the load transfer
between a pile and a silty or sandy soil is
fairly high, while a pile being activeIy forced
into soft sensitiveclay does not mobilize much
resistance. It was reasoned, therefore, that
the interaction of the upper half of the piles
with the silty clay and sandy clay would
result in a uniform stress distribution at the
top of the soft clay (elev. 50) and that the
lower portion of the piles would have little
influence. The Division of Building Research
For personal use only.
taken into aicouni by using a reduced depth
to compute the field value of C,, in which
case the laboratory test leads to a greater
underestimation of the secondary settle-
ment.
(7) The influence of temperature on the
laboratory values of C, is uncertain. The
literature on the subject is controversial and
my experience has not indicated that it has
a significant effect.
Reductions in the original text to keep it
within a reasonable length obviously left
questions which the discussers have raised.
For this the authors are grateful.

studies, which have now been analyzed

(Bozozuk 1972), show that where relative
movement between a pile and the soil is
small, the skin friction is related to the
effective horizontal pressures acting on the
pile, but where the relative movements are
large (and, in this case, excess pore pressures
were also large) the skin friction is small
and of the order of the remoulded strength
of the soil. If these results can be ap-
plied at the Empress Hotel site, it would
be reasonable to neglect the influence of
the piles in computing primary consolida-
tion of the 50-ft (15.2-m) layer, but not ne-
Bozozu~,M. 1972. Downdrag measurements on a
160-ft floating pipe test pile in marine clay. Can.
Geotech. J. 9(2), pp. 127-136.
K EENE, P. 1971. The Empress Hotel, Victoria, British
Columbia. Sixty-five years of foundation settle-
ments: Discussion. Can. Geotech. J. 8(4), pp. 610-
61 1.
LEONARDS, G. A. 1973. The Empress Hotel, Victoria,
British Columbia. Sixty-five years of foundation
settlements: Discussion. Can. Geotech. J. 10(1),
pp. 120-122.
W A LKER , L. K. 1971. The Empress Hotel, Victoria, Bri-
tish Columbia. Sixty-five years of foundation settle-
ments: Discussion. Can. Geotech. J. 8(3), p. 501.

A Study of Anchorages for Transmission Tower Foundations:

Closure
J. I. ADAMSA N D T. W. K LYM
Soils Section, Structl~ralResearch Departn1ent, Ontario Hydro, 200 Kiplir~gAve, Toror11018, Otzlario
Received August 2, 1972
Accepted August 29, 1972

Dr. Meyerhof has brought up the very
valid point of interaction between helix
plates in the uplift capacity of multi-helix
anchors. There is undoubtedly some in-
Canadian Geotechnical Journal, 10, 125 (1973)
teraction, however, it was believed that the
interaction would not be an overriding factor.
The photograph in Fig. 1 obtained from Mr.
G. H. Johnston of the National Research