Testing the Load (Available in Geoenvironmental Engineering Special Issue only)

by Andrew Schaffer, P.E., Engr.; Geotechnical Branch, Pittsburgh Dist., U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, PA,
Brian H. Greene, Engr.; Geotechnical Branch, Pittsburgh Dist., U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, PA,
Donald Green, P.E., Engr.; AWK Consulting Engrs., Inc., Turtle Creek, PA,


Serial Information: Civil Engineering—ASCE, 2000, Vol. 70, Issue 6, Pg. A2-A9


Document Type: Feature article

Abstract:

The Pittsburgh District of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers recently began construction of a new gated dam to replace a nearly 100-year-old concrete fixed-crest dam on the Monongahela River in Braddock, Pennsylvania. The vertical shafts for the dam's foundation had to be designed to withstand the appreciable lateral and axial loads imposed by the gated dam. To validate the adequacy of the vertical shafts, a comprehensive load test was deemed necessary, so the Corps built and tested two nearly full-sized caissons in the water. To generate axial loads, the Osterberg-cell method was used; to generate lateral loads, a system that pulled the two test shafts together, eliminating the need for a lateral reaction frame, was used.

Subject Headings: Load tests | Lateral loads | Axial loads | Shafts | Concrete dams | Vertical loads | Foundation design

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