Temporary Works Formwork
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Temporary Works Formwork
Chapter 14
Contiguous and secant piled walls
Chris Robinson
Design Manager, Cementation Skanska Limited
Andrew Bell
Chief Engineer, Cementation Skanska Limited
Contiguous and secant piled walls can be used to form embedded retaining walls, for
example, to construct tanks, shafts, tunnel portals, road/rail cuttings, basement exca-
vations, cut and cover tunnels and other forms of underground structures. They are com-
monly adopted where alternative methods cannot be successfully implemented because of
the nature of the ground or performance requirements. In common with diaphragm walls,
the economics of contiguous and secant piled walls become increasingly attractive when
they form part of the permanent works. This chapter includes a description of common
uses of contiguous and secant walls and their method of construction (including aspects
of additional temporary works required to facilitate construction), a summary of typical
construction details which can aid construction of a high-quality finished product, and a
description of common design approaches and design considerations.
14.1. Introduction
Contiguous and secant piled walls are two common forms of embedded retaining walls.
The most significant difference between these two forms of retaining wall is that contig-
uous piles are designed to be totally independent reinforced elements with, typically,
150 mm between adjacent pile elements at commencing level, whereas secant piles are
designed to form an interlocking wall. Secant piles can therefore retain both ground and
groundwater (subject to construction tolerances, as discussed in Section 14.3).
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Figure 14.2 Hard/soft or hard/firm secant piled wall. (Courtesy of Cementation Skanska Limited)
are constructed first using a ‘soft’ cement–bentonite mix (commonly 1 N/mm2) or ‘firm’
concrete (commonly 10 N/mm2). Male (or secondary) piles, formed in structural
reinforced concrete, are then installed between (and cutting into) the female piles, with
a typical interlock of 150–250 mm. These walls may need a reinforced concrete lining for
permanent works applications, depending on the particular watertightness requirements
of the project. An illustration of a typical hard/soft or hard/firm secant piled wall is
provided in Figure 14.2.
Figure 14.3 Hard/hard secant piled wall. (Courtesy of Cementation Skanska Limited)
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Contiguous and secant piled walls
lining wall. The end product provides a fully concreted face and can be an effective
alternative to diaphragm wall construction. Figure 14.3 depicts a typical hard/hard
secant piled wall.
14.2. Applications
Contiguous and secant piled walls can be adopted to provide solutions to a variety of
constructed situations. They tend to be adopted where the general site conditions, depth
of excavation, ground conditions or watertightness requirements (note: secant piled walls
only) preclude the adoption of alternative (potentially cheaper) methods, for example,
construction in open-cut excavations, king post walls or sheet piling (see Chapter 11).
Where particularly onerous ground conditions are present, for example, very loose fine
sands, a secant piled retaining wall may represent the preferred solution, even if ground-
water is not present above the excavation level. The nature of such ground may pose an
unacceptable risk of ground loss through insufficient arching capability of the ground,
which may in turn pose a risk to the stability and serviceability of adjacent structures
or services or ground to be supported.
The drawing sequence presented in Figures 14.4 and 14.5 shows the typical sequence of
site operations for contiguous pile wall and secant pile wall construction, respectively.
Pile construction needs to be sequenced to ensure that construction of any pile does not
adversely affect any previously constructed piles. For secant walls, the sequence needs
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Figure 14.4 Contiguous piled wall and indicative sequence of construction. (Courtesy of Cementation Skanska Limited)
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CFA pile boring, concrete CFA pile boring, concrete CFA pile boring, concrete CFA pile boring, concrete CFA pile boring, concrete CFA pile boring, concrete
& cage placement & cage placement & cage placement & cage placement & cage placement & cage placement
Figure 14.5 Secant piled wall and indicative sequence of construction. (Courtesy of Cementation Skanska Limited)
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6th female pile construction 1st male pile construction 2nd male pile construction 3rd male pile construction 4th male pile construction 5th male pile construction
concrete placement via tremie cage placement, cage placement, cage placement, cage placement, cage placement,
concrete placement via tremie concrete placement via tremie concrete placement via tremie concrete placement via tremie concrete placement via tremie
Contiguous and secant piled walls
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also to take account of the strength gain of the female pile concrete (female pile concrete
can potentially crack when male piles are cut into them if the concrete is too strong,
which may have a significant impact on the wall watertightness).
As well as being a temporary works solution in their own right, both contiguous and
secant piled wall construction can require some considerable elements of additional
temporary works for their successful execution. As described in Chapter 13 on dia-
phragm walls, these include aspects such as guide walls, support fluids, temporary
anchorages and/or temporary props, working platforms for tracked plant (see Chapters 5
and 7), consideration of slope stability (see Chapter 10), temporary screening to
protect the public and personnel, protection of watercourses and protection of adjacent
services.
Precautionary measures may be adopted such as using long temporary casings, limiting
the number of piles constructed along sensitive elevations within one shift, or under-
pinning of particularly sensitive adjacent structures.
When constructing contiguous piled walls, guide walls tend to be used less often because
construction tolerances are usually less critical (contiguous piled walls are not designed
for groundwater exclusion and therefore do not have any watertightness performance
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Contiguous and secant piled walls
Unlike contiguous piled wall construction, secant piled wall construction will almost
invariably require the construction of a scalloped guide wall in advance of piling
operations. The very nature of secant piled walls requires the piles to interlock, usually
for watertightness.
A large range of piling techniques can be adopted for construction of contiguous and
secant walls, although practical considerations may limit the use of some of these for the
construction of interlocking secant walls.
A non-exhaustive list of applicable piling techniques includes CFA, cased CFA, segmen-
tal flight auger (SFA), large-diameter rotary bored piling with conventional slip casings,
large-diameter rotary bore piling with segmental casing, mini piled case/auger and
drilled pile systems (e.g. Symmetrix).
Some of the above piling techniques (e.g. rotary bore piling, case and auger piling) can
be employed by adopting a short length of temporary casing (although care needs to be
taken when assessing the pile spacing for cased and uncased diameters) where the ground
is self-supporting. Others may require full-length casing in unstable ground or the use of
a bore support fluid, while CFA and SFA provide full bore support without the need for
temporary casings or support fluid.
The number of longitudinal reinforcing bars forming the pile cage needs to be compati-
ble with the pile diameter and minimum reinforcement requirements. In most instances,
the reinforcement requirements of wall piles will satisfy minimum reinforcement require-
ments without explicit consideration.
Female piles to secant piled walls are not normally reinforced. However, when designing
the wall as a hard/hard wall, the female pile will be constructed from a structural
concrete mix (with a specified characteristic strength) and will be suitably detailed to
facilitate subsequent male pile construction. The requirement for the male piles to cut
into the female pile clearly imposes constraints on the amount of reinforcement that can
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It is possible to vary the pile reinforcement within fabricated cages to the structural
requirements at different levels within the pile. Bars can potentially be curtailed or
changes in bar sizes made across cage splice zones. It should be noted that it is not
generally possible to economise pile cages to the same degree as within diaphragm wall
cages; this is partly due to the requirements to consider unfavourable cage orientation
within the pile bore and the design of the pile as a column element.
Where cage lengths are to be spliced, the splice detail should be carefully detailed to limit
bar congestion. This will assist in maintaining a high-quality finished product.
Reinforcement bar congestion is often the primary cause of poor-quality concrete at the
exposed face of the pile. As with detailing of reinforcement cages for diaphragm wall
panels, the cage splices should be detailed to ensure that operatives are not required
to place their hands within the cage, where serious injury could be incurred should the
cage sections move relative to each other.
It may be possible to introduce couplers and box-outs within pile reinforcement cages.
However, it is the authors’ experience that a high degree of redundancy (in terms of the
number of couplers fabricated into the reinforcement cage) is usually required to ensure
that sufficient couplers can be located when the box-out is exposed. Pile reinforcement
cages have a tendency to twist within the pile bore. This is particularly the case where
pile cages are plunged within wet concrete, but can also occur where cages are hung
or suspended within the empty pile bore with concrete subsequently being placed via
a tremie pipe. Another consideration in pile box-out design is to ensure that there is
sufficient space for concrete to flow between all the reinforcing elements and to ensure
that the box-out (typically constructed with polystyrene or Styrofoam to facilitate
exposure of the couplers) does not cause buoyancy instability of the pile cage.
14.3.7 Concreting
As described in Section 14.3.5, a variety of piling techniques can be adopted. Where piles
are constructed adopting CFA or SFA techniques, concrete will be introduced from the
toe of the pile and brought up to the level of the piling platform. Reinforcement cages are
installed following the concreting operation.
For open bore piling techniques (e.g. large-diameter rotary bored piling, cased and auger
piling), concreting of the pile (or grouting for small-diameter piles) will usually be under-
taken following installation of the reinforcement cage. For open bore techniques,
sectional tremie pipes are generally employed that typically have a diameter of 200–
300 mm. The diameter of the tremie pipe will depend on the individual contractor’s
equipment and the depth of the tremie pipe. Consideration of the diameter of the
reinforcing cage is also important in order to ensure the tremie pipe can easily be inserted
and removed without causing damage to, or snagging on, the cage.
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Contiguous and secant piled walls
For guidance on the performance of fresh concrete and its method of placement using
tremie methods in deep foundation elements, reference should be made to the Best
Practice Guide to Tremie Concrete for Deep Foundations (EFFC/DFI, 2016).
14.4. Design
14.4.1 Scope
This section on design is not intended to provide full guidance on how to design embedded
retaining walls. This subject is covered in detail within the various codes of practice and
best practice guidance listed at the end of this chapter. In particular, the reader is referred
to the Construction Industry Research and Information Association (CIRIA) publication
C760 (Gaba et al., 2017), BS 8002:2015 (BSI, 2015) and Eurocode 7 (BSI, 2004b).
The aim for this section is to provide commentary on specific design aspects of con-
tiguous and secant piled walls. High-level guidance on the aspects most relevant to the
design of embedded retaining walls is given in Chapter 13, Section 13.4.3.
Where the various factors are unfavourable, some form of temporary support will be
required. This may take the form of temporary berms (generally to facilitate installation
of another temporary support measure), temporary props or temporary ground
anchorages. Each of these measures will require suitable design. Should temporary
ground anchorages be adopted, this may require a way-leave if the anchorages are to
be installed beyond the site boundary. It will also be necessary to undertake a design
check to ensure that vertical stability is maintained, as the anchorages will impart a
downward vertical load onto the embedded retaining wall.
Temporary ground anchorages and temporary props will generally require a waling
beam to span along the wall to distribute the load between the wall and the anchors/
props. Often an in situ capping beam will be constructed to be used in place of a waling
beam. Waling beams for ground anchors can be more complex, particularly if they are
fabricated from steel. A twin parallel flange channel arrangement is often adopted which
allows the anchorage to pass between the two channel sections at the required angle of
declination (often 30–458 below horizontal). An alternative solution for ground
anchorages is to construct an in situ head block detail (Figure 14.6) which spans adjacent
reinforced piles.
14.4.3 Instrumentation
Where wall deflections are a critical element of the design (most particularly where the
observation method is being employed), inclinometer reservation tubes can be installed
within the reinforced piles. A suitably sized thin-walled steel tube (with a sealed end) is
attached to the reinforcement cage (in sections with threaded couplings if spliced cages
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Figure 14.6 In situ anchor head block. (Courtesy of Cementation Skanska Limited)
Female piles
Male piles
Pile concrete
broken/scabbled
back to sound concrete
Steel bearing
plate
2 No. dowels
are required). The reservation tube facilitates subsequent installation (grouting in) of
inclinometer tubes, which generally take the form of plastic ducts with orthogonal guides
for the inclinometer torpedo. It is usual for the inclinometer duct installation to be
undertaken outside the piling contract.
Other forms of instrumentation can be installed within wall piles, generally fixed to
reinforcement cages (e.g. vibrating wire strain gauges or fibre-optic strain gauges to
monitor the state of stress within the wall piles). Again this is most commonly associated
with the observational method, for example, when assessing whether additional tempor-
ary support measures may be omitted. For full details on the observational method, refer
to CIRIA R185 (Nicholson et al., 1999).
Care needs to be taken to ensure that the reinforcement design is compatible with the
method of pile construction proposed. For example, plunging cages within CFA/SFA
piles has practical limitations on the depth attainable for a given cage weight and
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Contiguous and secant piled walls
There may be opportunity to refine the reinforcement design according to the distri-
bution of bending moment and shear force magnitude with depth. Bars can
potentially be curtailed or bar sizes changed across splice zones to provide the most
economical configuration.
The reinforcement cage design should take into account any requirements for handling/
lifting the cages to ensure that they are sufficiently robust. This may require the inclusion
of suitable lifting bands and so on. Where cages are required to be spliced, sufficient
attention to detail should be given to the method used to form the splice such that oper-
atives are not required to put their hands within the cage during the splicing operation.
While it is usual to maintain male–female pile interlock to below the dredge level, there
may be opportunity in certain circumstances to found the female piles above the dredge
level if a suitable low-permeability stratum is present. It is important to clearly commu-
nicate any risks that may be present in such an arrangement, and have a suitable contrac-
tual arrangement in place covering risks associated with watertightness and the costs of
any potential remedial works.
Where water-bearing strata are retained by the secant wall, it is often a requirement to
take the toe of the retaining wall to a depth where it will provide a vertical cut-off by
effectively sealing in to a low-permeability stratum. This relies on the presence of such
a suitable stratum within a sensible depth of the toe level which is designed for wall
stability. In addition, a check should be undertaken to ascertain the level to which
male–female pile interlock can be maintained.
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permeability (both vertical and horizontal), which in turn will depend on the degree of
anisotropy of the soil. Guidance on groundwater control is given in Chapter 6.
Where temporary lateral support to the wall is provided through ground anchorages, the
vertical stability of the wall should be checked due to the increased vertical loading on
the wall from the anchorages.
Where cohesive materials are present at the dredge level, consideration should be given
to the potential for these materials to degrade and soften, usually just within the top 1 m,
thus potentially adversely affecting the passive resistance afforded to the retaining wall.
As well as considering the required wall toe level to maintain lateral and vertical stability,
certain ground conditions may require the wall toe to be taken deeper by consideration
of more global factors. One such scenario is where an embedded retaining wall is to be
constructed within deep soft cohesive deposits. The potential for basal failure of the
excavation, whereby the soft cohesive materials affect flow around the toe of the wall,
should be assessed in such a situation. Piping failure may need to be avoided and poten-
tial slip planes may need to be intercepted (see Chapter 10).
REFERENCES
BSI (British Standards Institution) (2004a) BS EN 1992-1-1:2004 + A1:2014. Eurocode 2:
Design of concrete structures. General rules and rules for buildings. BSI, London, UK.
BSI (2004b) BS EN 1997-1:2004 + A1:2013. Eurocode 7: Geotechnical design. General
rules. BSI, London, UK.
BSI (2009) BS 8102:2009. Code of practice for protection of below ground structures
against water from the ground. BSI, London, UK.
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Contiguous and secant piled walls
FURTHER READING
BSI (British Standards Institution) (1997) BS 8110-1:1997. Structural use of concrete. Code
of practice for design and construction. BSI, London, UK.
BSI (2015) BS 8004:2015. Code of practice for foundations. BSI, London, UK.
ICE (Institution of Civil Engineers) (2009) Reducing the Risk of Leaking Substructure. A
Clients’ Guide. ICE, London, UK.
ICE (2016) ICE Specification for Piling and Embedded Retaining Walls, 3rd edn. ICE Pub-
lishing, London, UK.
Powrie W and Batten M (2000) Prop Loads in Large Braced Excavations. CIRIA, London,
UK, PR77.
Puller MJ (2003) Deep Excavations: A Practical Manual, 2nd edn. Thomas Telford,
London, UK.
Twine D and Roscoe H (1999) Temporary Propping of Deep Excavations – Guidance on
Design. CIRIA, London, UK, C517.
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