The site is home to an existing cement manufacturing plant. The project consisted of building an additional new cement manufacturing facility adjacent the existing infrastructure. This would involve working within a working mine and cement manufacturing plant.
The approach for Phase 1 was to start on the critical path structures, the kiln foundation drilled shafts per the current design. This involved coordination with the general contractor and the facility personnel to insure that we can meet the project schedule as well as not disrupt the current plant operations.
For the kiln foundations, forty-four 48″ diameter drilled shafts were installed to a depth of 55′ below the bottom of the foundation. Auger drilling techniques were utilized to drill the overburden caliche and underlying limestone bearing material. Temporary casing was utilized when necessary.
As part of the drilled shaft work,we proposed installing a o-cell load test to determine the ultimate side shear capacity and end bearing capacity of the underlying limestone. The purpose of the load test is to allow the engineer of record to value engineer the drilled shafts for Phase 2 which will save time on the schedule and provide a cost savings to the owner.
The load test was a success and the drilled shafts were completed on time with no safety incidents.
The results of the load test allowed the engineer to reduce the drilled shafts diameter and depths for Phase 2.
