Deep excavations

A practical manual

Second edition

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 Deep excavations
A practical manual

Malcolm Puller, CEng, DIC, FICE, FIStrucE

Second edition

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 Published by Thomas Telford Publishing, Thomas Telford Ltd, 1 Heron Quay, London E14 4JD.
www.thomastelford.com

Distributors for Thomas Telford books are

USA: ASCE Press, 1801 Alexander Bell Drive, Reston, VA 20191-4400, USA
Japan: Maruzen Co. Ltd, Book Department, 3–10 Nihonbashi 2-chome, Chuo-ku, Tokyo 103
Australia: DA Books and Journals, 648 Whitehorse Road, Mitcham 3132, Victoria

First published 1996

Second edition 2003

A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library

ISBN: 0 7277 3150 5

# Thomas Telford Limited 2003

All rights, including translation, reserved. Except as permitted by the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act
1988, no part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system or transmitted in any form
or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying or otherwise, without the prior written permission
of the Publishing Director, Thomas Telford Publishing, Thomas Telford Ltd, 1 Heron Quay, London
E14 4JD.

This book is published on the understanding that the author is solely responsible for the statements made
and opinions expressed in it and that its publication does not necessarily imply that such statements and/or
opinions are or reflect the views or opinions of the publishers. While every effort has been made to ensure
that the statements made and the opinions expressed in this publication provide a safe and accurate guide,
no liability or responsibility can be accepted in this respect by the author or publishers.

Typeset by Academic + Technical, Bristol

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 Preface

The opportunity to revise, correct and augment the previous publication in a

second edition is gratefully accepted. Two rather obvious opportunities
present themselves. Firstly, the first edition contained some errors for which
the Author must accept responsibility; hopefully some applied diligence and
care have corrected these. Secondly, and perhaps more importantly, the
past seven years have given both consultants and contractors the opportunity
to show analytical and design skills and practical boldness in underground
construction works which may have been difficult to match in recent previous
times. The marriage of numerical analysis and practical construction becomes
a reality as further validation of analytical methods is made. It is unfair,
perhaps, to draw attention to such progress by citing one individual contract,
but with the risk of irritating engineers elsewhere the Author believes the deep
excavation for the new Westminster underground station made for the Jubilee
Line in the late 1990s deserves such attention. More details are to be found
on pages 124–126 and 533 of this second edition of Deep Excavations and
in recent technical publications by others.
Once more, the Author gratefully acknowledges the patient assistance given
by the staff of the library of the Institution of Civil Engineers and the kindness
of copyright holders in giving permission to quote from published papers and
reports.
Grateful thanks are also given to Brian Bell, David Puller, Chris Harnan
and John Dixon for all their helpful comments and assistance, and to Carolyn
and Jeremy King for the preparation of the typed text.
Above all, the Author believes past experience and engineering skills should
remain critically allied in the design and construction of deep excavation
works and trusts that the reader may agree and follow this principle, rather
than rely unduly on formal standards and regulations.
A cynic once said that ‘engineering is the art of modelling materials we
do not wholly understand, into shapes we cannot precisely analyse so as to
withstand forces we cannot entirely assess in such a way that the public has
no reason to suspect the extent of our ignorance’. The Author trusts that
study of the following pages may dispel this view.

M J Puller
Sevenoaks, Kent
September 2003

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 Conversion factors

Some of the cases and examples cited in this book use Imperial units. For
convenience of readers, the following list of conversion factors is provided.
(The conversion factors have been rounded-up where appropriate).

Linear measure
1 in. ¼ 25.4 mm 1 mm ¼ 0.03937 in.
1 ft ¼ 0.3048 m 1 cm ¼ 0.3937 in.
1 yd ¼ 0.9144 m 1m ¼ 3.2808 ft
or 1.0936 yd
1 mile ¼ 1.6093 km 1 km ¼ 0.6214 mile
Square measure
1 sq. in. ¼ 645.16 mm2 1 cm2 ¼ 0.155 sq. in.
1 sq. ft ¼ 0.0929 m2 1 m2 ¼ 10.7639 sq. ft
1 sq. yd ¼ 0.8361 m2 or 1.196 sq. yds
1 acre ¼ 0.4047 hectare 1 hectare ¼ 2.471 acres
1 sq. mile ¼ 259 hectares
1 hectare ¼ 10 000 m2 1 km2 ¼ 247.1 acres
Cubic measure
1 cubic in. ¼ 16.387 cm3 1 mm3 ¼ 0.000 061 cubic in.
1 cubic ft ¼ 0.0283 m3 1 m3 ¼ 35.3147 cubic ft
1 cubic yd ¼ 0.7645 m3 or 1.308 cubic yds
Measure of capacity
1 pint ¼ 0.568 litre 1 litre ¼ 1.7598 pints
1 gallon ¼ 4.546 litres or 0.22 gallon
Weight
1 oz ¼ 28.35 g 1g ¼ 0.0353 oz
1 lb ¼ 0.4536 kg 1 kg ¼ 2.2046 lb
1 ton ¼ 1.016 tonnes
or 1016 kg
Load, pressure, density
1 lbf ¼ 4.448 N
1 pound per linear foot ¼ 1.4882 kg per linear m
1 pound per square foot ¼ 4.882 kg per m2
1 tonf per linear foot ¼ 32.69 kN per linear m
1 tonf per square inch ¼ 15.444 N per mm2
1 tonf per square foot ¼ 107.25 kN per m2
100 lb per cubic foot ¼ 1602 kg per m3
Other parameters
1 ft3 /s ¼ 0.0283 m3 /s
1 Imperial gall/min ¼ 4.546 l/m
1 inch unit of moment of inertia ¼ 41.6198 cm units
1 inch unit of modulus of section ¼ 16.3860 cm units

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 Contents

Preface v
Conversion factors vii

1. Introduction 1
Safety and avoidance of damage 2
Construction regulations: safety 2
Contractual responsibility: client, engineer and contractor 3
Causes of failure in deep excavations 5
Risk evaluation 7
Risk management 8
Party walls 9
References 9
Bibliography 10

2. The control of groundwater 11

Groundwater problems 11
Available methods of groundwater control 13
Design of dewatering systems 46
References 66
Bibliography 67

3. Open excavation: side slopes and soil retention 69

Battered excavations 69
Improving the stability of slopes 70
Reinforced soil 70
Soil retention: further wall constructions 91
References 94
Bibliography 95

4. Vertical soil support: wall construction 97

Options for sheeting and walling 97
Plate and anchor wall by underpinning 98
Vertical soldiers and horizontal lagging, king post method 100
Sheet piling 103
Contiguous bored piling 110
Secant piles 115
Diaphragm walls 121
Soldier pile tremie concrete (SPTC) method 140
Construction economics 141
References 144
Bibliography 145

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 x Deep excavations

5. Design of vertical soil support 146

Earth pressures: limiting horizontal pressure 147
Tension cracks 152
Softening of clays 153
Wall friction and wall adhesion 153
Magnitude of movement needed to mobilize limit pressures 154
Wall flexibility 157
Surcharge loads 157
Wall movement 160
Design calculation according to Eurocode 7 161
Temporary works 166
Mixed total and effective stress design 167
Design water pressures 167
Design methodology 170
Cantilever walls and single-prop walls 173
Multi-prop walls 183
Other design considerations 192
References 199
Bibliography 200

6. Cofferdam construction 202

Design and construction responsibilities 202
Types of cofferdam 203
Sheeted cofferdams 204
Double-skin cofferdams 245
Gravity type cofferdams 257
References 260
Bibliography 261

7. Cofferdam design 263

Braced sheeted cofferdams 263
Double-wall cofferdams 310
Cellular cofferdams 317
Gravity cofferdams 325
References 326
Bibliography 327

8. Basement construction and design 329

Engineering an excavation 329
Construction methods for soil support 329
Water-resisting basement construction 335
Progressive development of construction methods for deep
basements 337
Peripheral sheeting or walling 351
Overall stability: design for uplift 393
Construction economics 393
References 395
Bibliography 397

9. Cut-and-cover construction 398

Introduction 398
Choice of wall system 403
Overall stability: design for uplift 444

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 Contents xi

References 447
Bibliography 448

10. Shafts and caissons: construction and design 450

Shafts for civil engineering purposes 450
Caissons 461
References 518
Bibliography 519

11. Soil movement due to deep excavations 521

Introduction 521
Factors that influence soil movement 522
Measuring techniques and their accuracy 529
Measures to reduce soil movement at the curtilage of a deep
excavation 529
Methods of predicting soil movement 537
Building response to ground displacement 553
Measures to alleviate the effects of settlement 555
References 556
Bibliography 559

Appendix: Selection of typical soil parameters

and correlations for initial design purposes 560

Index 563

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