CONSTRUCTION OF BARRETTES FOR

H I G H - R I S E FOUNDATIONS 3

By Salem D. Ramaswamy, 1 F. ASCE, and E. M. Pertusier 2

ABSTRACT: Barrettes are huge concrete piers, basically rectangular. The cross-
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sectional areas of barrettes have often been more than 75 sq ft (7 m2) and they
have been used for depths exceeding 260 ft (80 m) facilitating heavy vertical
loads of the order of 3,000 tons/barrette to be transmitted to the bearing layer.
Barrettes are used also as Moscovite wall for deep basements of high-rise build-
ings to resist both vertical and lateral loads. The fact that a single barrette can
replace a group of conventional piles results in a more compact, economical,
and reliable foundation system. The installation technique of barrettes follows
closely the method of constructing diaphragm wall using bentonite slurry, rein-
forcing cage, and tremie concreting with careful quality control. Although there
are certain reservations for using barrettes instead of conventional piles and
diaphragm walls, the inherent advantages and the confidence gained by ex-
perience have been responsible for their increased usage, especially as heavy
load-bearing elements for high-rise foundations and basements.

INTRODUCTION

Barrettes are buried concrete piers, basically rectangular. The cross-

sectional areas often exceed 75 sq ft (7 m 2 ) with the capability of resisting
vertical as well as lateral loads of high magnitude. Barrettes have b e e n
used beyond 260 ft (80 m) in d e p t h in difficult subsoil a n d g r o u n d w a t e r
conditions. A single barrette can replace a group of conventional bored
piles or driven piles and thus can result in a more compact a n d reliable
foundation system with advantages of savings in time a n d cost.
Conventional piles often become impractical a n d uneconomical w h e n
very heavy column loads are to be transmitted to a very d e e p bearing
stratum. The problem becomes more difficult u n d e r high water table
conditions a n d variable soils involving sands, silts, a n d clay. Such high
transmission of loads as several t h o u s a n d s of tons through a difficult
deep deposit usually requires the use of casing a n d stringent quality
controls in order to ensure the integrity of such load bearing elements
as described by Ramaswamy a n d Aziz (3-5). In some cases, the designer
would need foundation elements to resist lateral loads a n d b e n d i n g mo-
ments in a preferential direction in addition to vertical loads. It w o u l d
be more advantageous in such cases to use rectangular shapes instead
of circular sections. By adopting barrettes, the designer w o u l d be able
to increase the inertia a n d b e n d i n g m o m e n t resistance in the required
direction without having to increase the concrete area by properly orien-
tating the barrette. Regarding isotropic horizontal or b e n d i n g loadings,
"Presented at the October 22-26, 1984, International Conference on Tall Build-
ings held in Singapore.
'Assoc. Prof., Dept. of Civ. Engrg., National Univ. of Singapore, Kent Ridge,
Singapore.
Executive Dir., Bachy Soletanche Singapore Pte Ltd, Singapore.
Note.—Discussion open until May 1,1987. To extend the closing date one month,
a written request must be filed with the ASCE Manager of Journals. The manu-
script for this paper was submitted for review and possible publication on April
5, 1985. This paper is part of the Journal of Construction Engineering, Vol. 112,
No. 4, December, 1986. ©ASCE, ISSN 0733-9364/86/0004-0455/$01.00. Paper No.
21067.

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 TABLE 1.—Barrettes: Shapes, Sizes, and Capacity
Shape Width of limbb [ft (m)] Safe bearing load0 (tons)
(1) (2) (3)
I 7-9.(2.2-2.7) 600-1,600
+a 7-9 (2.2-2.7) 1,000-1,800
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a
T
7-15 (2.2-4.5) 1,000-3,400
L 7-11.5 (2.2-3.5) 1,000-2,000
Ha 9-13 (2.7-4) 1,600-3,200
ya 7-9 (2.2-2.7) 1,600-3,000
These shapes are not feasible under very soft ground conditions.
"The thickness of limbs varies in the range of 2-4 ft (0.6-1.2 m).
c
Safe bearing load depends on the bearing medium.

isotropic shapes can also be accommodated using the barrette technique.

Barrettes are deep concrete piers built in excavations of rectangular or
any other shape with the perimeter consisting mostly of straight lines
and right angles. Different types of cross sections commonly used along
with their load bearing capacities are shown in Table 1. Barrettes are
used to carry heavy loads and therefore a single barrette can replace a
few conventional piles, resulting in savings in construction time, quan-
tity of concrete and steel, size of pile caps, etc. Highly sophisticated ma-
chines such as heavy self-guiding, cable-operated or kelly-guided clam-
shells (Fig. 1), are used to ensure excavation efficiency. With the use of

FIG. 1.—Heavy Self-Guiding Grab

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 an extensive range of chisels, excavations are possible through any type
of soil in order to reach the bearing layer.
In this paper, the writers have highlighted salient points as regards
the construction and advantages of barrettes for use as heavy load ele-
ments as well as a wall support system for high-rise buildings. Several
advantages inherent in the use of barrettes are also brought out.
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CONSTRUCTION OF BARRETTES

When the depth of the bearing layer is variable, it is checked with

respect to a borehole sunk at the center of each barrette location before
commencing the excavation. The borehole information is later used to
cross-check against the material that is actually excavated. More than
one borehole for any barrette is warranted if the initial soil investigations
suggest bearing layers of varying consistency occurring at different depths.
A retaining wall about 3.5 ft (1 m) deep below the ground level con-
forming to the perimeter of the barrette is built before commencing the
excavation. This guide wall may be removed once the concreting is com-
pleted and the barrette is ready.
Cable supported heavy-duty clamshell grabs (Fig. 1) are used to ex-
cavate barrette trenches. The grabs are operated from a conventional
crawler crane. The weight of a grab would be at least a few tons for the
smallest grab to about 20 tons for the biggest. Heavy guide protectors
are used above the clamshell section to regulate vertical alignment. Some
of these grabs are monitored by rigid kelly bars. The barrettes are com-
monly installed with one bite of grab equipment. Shapes of grab would

concreting

FIG. 2.—Concreting of Trench FIG. 3.—Maine-Montparnasse Tower,

Paris

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 range usually from 6 ft x 1.65 ft-12 ft x 5 ft (1.8 m x 0.50 m-3.6 m x
1.5 m). Combinations of any length with any width is possible. Com-
posite shapes, e.g. T, L, H, etc., are possible with two or more bites of
grab.
During the excavation of trench for the barrette, bentonite slurry is
continually fed into the excavation as it proceeds and the slurry level is
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maintained at the ground level. When excavating barrettes through very

poor soils, particular care is taken in order to avoid a piston effect when
moving up the grab towards the surface. The reinforcing cages are usu-
ally fabricated on the site as rigid elements and delivered ready for use.
Deformed bars or mild steel bars may be used. The spacing between
steel bars must be sufficient to ensure that flow of tremied concrete is
not impeded. The cages are made in one or more elements depending
upon the depth of the trench and the capacity of the available crane.
Various sections are assembled during the cage placement operation.
Special spacers (roll or plates) are used to position the reinforcement.
Once the steel cage is in position, concreting can begin. The concreting
is done in one operation (Fig. 2). Concrete designed to have a minimum
slump of 6 in. (150 mm) of specified quality is tremied from the bottom
of the trench upwards as described by Mastikian (2), ensuring a uniform
rise to avoid segregation and pollution. The washing and brushing ef-
fects of the concrete as it rises in the trench ensures a perfect cleaning
of the bars and thus a good bond with concrete is achieved.

EXAMPLE

One example of the use of a barrette is the Maine-Montparnasse Tower,

Paris. This 60-story, 689-ft (210-m) high building weighing about 115,000
tons posed very special foundation problems (Fig. 3). Grouting and an-
chorages between two retaining walls were used to stabilize the under-
ground railway tunnel under the block. The foundations that straddle
this tunnel were taken down 203 ft (62 m) through the plastic clay strata
and are anchored in a bed of compact chalk. The foundations are com-
posed of large, high-bearing capacity elements up to 16.5 ft x 5 ft (5 m
x 1.5 m) for the tower block.

EXCAVATION SUPPORT SYSTEM

In densely built-up areas such as are commonly found in Hong Kong

and Singapore, construction of deep basements usually poses problems.
Such problems can be solved by the downward construction technique
reported by Ramaswamy, et al. (6). A simple solution can be found by
constructing rectangular barrettes along the alignment of the basement
wall at a spacing dependent upon the soil's characteristics and building
L-shaped barrettes at the corners. The barrettes may be dimensioned to
take lateral or vertical loads or both. After completing the barrettes in
the usual way, they are topped by using a capping beam connecting all
the barrettes (Fig. 4), along the periphery of the basement wall. This is
to ensure more lateral rigidity restricting the horizontal movement of the
barrettes. The bulk excavation follows. As the barrettes are exposed dur-
ing excavation, the clear space between them, usually about 6.5 ft (2 m),

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FIG. 4.—Moscovite Wall

IS^
Prefounded Columns
_ C a s i in place
diaphragm wall

LEGEND
O 4 1p930m bored pile (Bnos)
6 A 1-750m bored pile (12nos)
O il'600mbored pile (lOnos)
O ^K50mbored pile(13nos)
O l l-300m bored pile |B nos 1
o i l.UOmbored piled no)
t:i 2-7x0'8mbarret!e [2 nos)
a 2-7x1 2mbarret(e (17nos)
M Prefounded Column
PLAN VIEW - DIAPHRAGM WALL & FOUNDATION

FIG. 5,—Singapura Forum

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 is lagged with reinforced concrete structurally bound to the barrettes.
The excavation is further continued down to the desired level, leaving
an impervious wall around. Such a wall is known in France as a "Mos-
covite wall." Suitable lateral supports such as internal bracings or tie-
back anchors may need to be provided depending upon the depth and
geometry of excavation and the lateral pressures to be resisted. Such
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lateral supports may be avoided irrespective of the depth by adopting

a downward method of basement construction (6).
The Moscovite wall is much preferable to a conventional diaphragm
wall for excavations where the wall must perform dual functions of lat-
eral support cut-off as well as load bearing. The wall itself forms a per-
manent part of the main structure. A Moscovite wall has been used re-
cently in the construction of a basement for the Bank Negara project in
Kuala Lumpur. This technique is limited to cases where the ground-
water level is located below the formation level or where the ground-
water can be lowered during construction. When the water level is high,
a continuous diaphragm wall is preferred with some of the panels con-
structed deeper than the general diaphragm wall in order to transfer the
column loads to the bearing layer. Such a technique has been used by
Bachy Soletanche in Singapore on Orchard Road for the Forum project
(Fig. 5).

ADVANTAGES OF BARRETTES

The construction of barrettes does not involve groundwater lowering

as the bentonite slurry is kept at ground level during the whole con-
struction of the barrettes, and consequently the vertical ground move-
ments are negligible. The bentonite slurry effectively holds the trench
walls. As percussion is not used, vibration effects are not a matter of
concern. The construction method satisfies any reasonable noise or other
environmental stipulations. The bearing formation can be better ascer-
tained, and the excavated material can be inspected visually. When a
cable clamshell is used, the depth of barrette is only limited by the length
of the cable on the crane. Presently in Southeast Asia, barrettes have
been constructed up to 164 ft (50 m) in Hong Kong; more than 262 ft
(80 m) in Malaysia, and more than 148 ft (45 m) in Singapore. For such
depths and very heavy loads, conventional piles would not have been
practical.
The Singapore project is the "Singapura Forum" consisting of a 20-
story office tower and shopping podium located along Orchard Road.
For this project the top-down construction method for the basements
was used involving a diaphragm wall incorporating T-shaped barrettes
as shown in Fig. 5. Bored piles for the lower loads and barrettes up to
4 ft x 9 ft (1.2 m X 2.7 m) for the higher loads (up to 1,600 tons) were
used.
For equal depth and equal cross section, rectangular barrettes exca-
vated under bentonite can mobilize much greater lateral friction com-
pared to bored piles of circular cross section. In some cases, barrettes
may not even need to be taken to a hard-bearing stratum since friction
alone can suffice as support as explained by Keinberger (1). A barrette
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 can be aligned to work at maximum efficiency with respect to lateral
loads and bending moments, whereas a circular-bored pile needs to be
dimensioned for the highest applied moment or lateral force. For heavy
loads several conventional piles would be required and, as a conse-
quence, the integrity of each bored pile must be ensured. Therefore more
time and effort is required and more space is occupied by the group,
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resulting in large pile cap. In the final analysis, more money and time
is spent. Barrettes, because of their special properties and construction
techniques, can overcome all the disadvantages inherent in the conven-
tional piling usage. Barrettes also have great advantages as Moscovite
wall, as compared to the sheetpile wall, contiguous bored pile wall, or
even diaphragm wall, when the water table conditions are favorable.
Recently barrettes have found some applications in Hong Kong, Sin-
gapore and Malaysia. Previously, although recommended for some proj-
ects, there has been some reservations in the use of barrettes in South-
east Asia for the following reasons: (1) The unavailability of specialist
contractors and the lack of competing contractors; (2) the doubts as to
whether the contractors who are well versed in installing bored piles
would be able to build the barrettes confidently and successfully without
any prior experience; (3) the reluctance to use a new type of foundation
when the conventional piling techniques are available and handy; and
(4) the inherent difficulties involved in load testing barrettes and the
psychological fear of the consequences of a failure under such heavy
loads. A group of piles appears more reassuring since even if one or
two piles are not satisfactory, the group as a whole is still acceptable.
To a certain extent, feelings and opinions similar to the above are still
prevalent in the region. The integrity of barrettes need not be questioned
since the following continuous controls are provided during construc-
tion: (1) Control of the soil by direct examination of the spoils; and (2)
control of the section of the barrettes at each level through the contin-
uous monitoring of the concreting operation.
In addition, a few sonic corings may be insisted upon in order to check
the integrity of the concrete barrette itself.
Regarding the control of the ability of the bearing layer to carry the
loads, a load test for failure may be carried out on a smaller section-
bored pile installed near a barrette. Only through usage and the confi-
dence so gained, as well as the performance records obtained elsewhere
may the engineer develop confidence in barrettes.

CONCLUSIONS

Barrettes have been accepted as an efficient and highly reliable method

for supporting heavy structures and for basement walls. Barrettes have
been used extensively in Europe and to some extent in other countries.
Advantages of barrettes must be exploited as foundation elements and
for deep basements of heavy structures since they can be constructed
with high quality control and lower costs despite stringent limitations
of space, time, or environmental regulations. Barrettes can be used in
combination with conventional foundation systems (e.g. bored piles) and
support systems (e.g. diaphragm walls) with beneficial technical and
economical advantages.

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 ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

The authors w o u l d like to express their sincere thanks to L. Mastikian

of Intrafor Cofor, Paris, for valuable discussions on barrettes. The h e l p
of Bachy Soletanche Singapore Pte Ltd in permitting the authors to make
use of the figures, references, a n d publications on barrettes a n d Mos-
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covite wall is also gratefully acknowledged.

APPENDIX.—REFERENCES

1. Kienberger, H., "Diaphragm Walls as Load Bearing Foundations," Proceed-

ings, Conference on Diaphragm Walls and Anchorages, Institution of Civil
Engineers, London, U.K., 1975, pp. 19-21.
2. Mastikian, L., "Technology of Driven and Loaded Piles—Pile Controls During
Construction," Foundation Engineering, Presses de l'Ecole Nationale des Ponts
et Chaussees, Vol. 1, Paris, France, 1983, pp. 317-326.
3. Ramaswamy, S. D., Aziz, M. A., and Lee, S. L., "Construction of Bored Piles—
A Case Study" Proceedings, Conference on Geotechnical Engineering, Vol. 1,
New Delhi, India, D e c , 1978, pp. 220-223.
4. Ramaswamy, S. D., Aziz, M. A., and Lee, S. L., "Discussion on Paper—
Construction of Bored Piles—A Case Study," Proceedings, Conference on Geo-
technical Engineering, Vol. 3, New Delhi, India, Dec, 1978, pp. 96-97.
5. Ramaswamy, S. D., Aziz, M. A., and Lee, S. L., "Procedures and Precautions
for the Concreting of Bored Piles," Proceedings, Conference on Geotechnical
Engineering, Vol. 1, Bombay, India, Dec, 1980, pp. 161-164.
6. Ramaswamy, S. D., Aziz, M. A., Lee, S. L., and Chee, K. Y., "Downward
Method of Construction of Deep Basement," Proceedings, Indian Geotechnical
Conference, Vol. 2, Madras, India, Dec, 1983, pp. 91-94.

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