International Press-in Associationwww.press-in.org

I NSIDE T HIS I SSUE
1. Messages (P1)from the Directors

Volume 4, Issue 2 June 2019

Messagefrom the Director

2. Special Contribution (P3)
Rapid Load Test of Piles
3. Serial Reports (P9)
From USA
Terminologies
4. Report (P15)
TC1 Site Visit
5. Announcements (P16)
6. Event Diary (P18)
7. Corporate Members (P19)
8. Editorial Remarks (P21)

EDITORIAL BOARD
Osamu Kusakabe
Limin Zhang
Andrew McNamara
Yukihiro Ishihara
Kazuyoshi Ishii
Masafumi Yamaguchi
Nanase Ogawa
Yuki Hirose
Naoki Suzuki
Hongjuan He

Taro Uchimura
Associate Professor, Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering
Saitama University
I am pleased to write a message for this IPA News Letter. I havebeen involved in the IPA since 2006, when IPA was established.
I really respect the creativity and activity brought out by themember of IPA as well as engineers developing press-in
technology.
My life as a researcher started with topics on reinforcement soil technique. The mainprinciple of soil reinforcement is mechanical interaction between the ground andreinforcement members. Therefore, it was natural for me to be familiar with thePress-in technology. Specially, I was interested in the process of piles pressed into theground very adjacent to existing underground structures. The compact-sizedmachines with self-moving feature allow construction works to be carried out inplaces with limited access or in the areas where environmental disruption isprohibited. However, construction of the piles might push the ground toward existingunderground structures, as like walls and pipes, and cause serious damages. I madescaled model tests on such situations and observed the force applied on the wall andpipes. I also conducted some full-scale tests with support by Giken LTD. Finally, I
concluded that the excessive earth pressure on the underground structures due topiles pressed-in nearby is limited and temporary, if the pile does not hit the structures
directly. In addition, it was also found that the press-in force on the top of pile is notaffected by the existence of underground structures nearby. This was unexpected andan interesting result for me. The installation of pile affects the earth pressure on theunderground structures, but its reaction does not return to the press-in force on the
pile! There are still many unknow mechanisms around press-in technology.
For the recent decade, I am working on mitigation of slope failure disasters. Our groupdeveloped low-cost and real-time slope monitoring equipment to establish an early
warning method for slope failures due to heavy rainfall. Press-in technology shouldbe also suitable for mechanical stabilization of slopes to prevent disasters, because
most of such construction works must be conducted in a limited space on the slope
grounds. I think it is needed to develop more compact and light weight press-in
machines which can be easily operated in mountainous areas. The cost is also an
important factor, as most of the mitigation works for slope failure disasters are conductedwith very limited budget. I am interested in such application of press-in technology.

◆ A brief CV of Assoc. Prof. Taro Uchimura
Dr. Taro Uchimura is an associate professor in Saitama University, Japan. He graduatedfrom the University of Tokyo with Bachelor in Civil Engineering and took the Doctoral
Degree in the University of Tokyo in 2003. He has taken on the research anddevelopment on the reinforced soil structures for many years, including topics onmechanical interaction between structures and ground. His interests on the press-in
technologies are also related to these topics. In the recent decades, he is also working
on mitigation of slope failure disasters, developing monitoring and early warning systems.
1Volume 4, Issue 2 June 2019

Messagefrom the Director
Pastsakorn Kittiyodom
Deputy Managing Director
Geotechnical & Foundation Co., Ltd
I am pleased to write a message for the present issue of IPA Newsletter. My association with GIKEN LTD. and IPA started
when I attended conference for Japanese Construction Technology at Embassy of Japan in Thailand in 2015. One of GIKEN
staffs gave an interesting talk on Press-in Technology that could be applied in South East Asia region. I and IPA began tomake a conversation from time to time.
In 2016, I was invited to give a discussion of road retaining flood defense wall with IPA at Drainage and Seweragedepartment of The Bangkok Metropolitan Administration (BMA). There were some problems of road settlement
alongside of irrigation canal in rural area of Thailand. A Road alongside irrigation canal has been used for transportationof agricultural products from plantation to a market. Nowadays, however, some of irrigation canals are utilized as flooddrainage. Many failure and settlement of roads have been reported due to low bearing capacity of soil. In addition, themain reason for road settlement comes from water level inside a canal. During drought season, soils under canals show
large settlement due to lowering of groundwater levels. In addition, slope of canal tends to increase due to water erosion.
As a result, canal is vulnerable to collapse when water level is decreasing. To tackle this issue, steel sheet pile wall has
been proposed for permanently solving the problem. I also held the seminar between IPA and King Monkut’s Universityof Technology Thonburi to exchange the knowledge of academic researches.
From 2016 to present, I attend the annually IPA seminar in Kochi Japan. I went to many interesting construction sites of
Tsunami protection using Press-in Technology. I was impressed to see the working machine alongside the road without
interruption any transportation. In addition, the new wall could be installed without removal of existing conventional wall.
In May 2018, IPA seminar on Press-in Technology was held in Thailand. The seminar speakers included lectures from bothThailand and Japan. Expert contractors who have experienced in Press-in shared examples of many completed projects
in Thailand. I was the chairman of the seminar local committee and there were around 120 participants joined the event.
I recently work as a project design manager of underground transportation project in the central part of Bangkok. Pressin Technology shows many great advantages for narrow working space, environment and aesthetics. I am looking forward
to support many further advances in construction technology under the International Press-in Association.

◆ A brief CV of Dr. Pastsakorn Kittiyodom
Dr. Pastsakorn Kittiyodom is a Deputy Managing Director at Geotechnical & Foundation Co.,
Ltd. The company is one of the biggest consultants in the field of underground construction in
Thailand. He graduated from SIIT Thammasat University, Thailand with bachelor in Civil
Engineering and took the Master and Doctoral Degree in Kanazawa University, Japan. He used
to work as an Assistant Professor at Kanazawa University. He also has experiences in analysis
and construction supervision in soil and geotechnical work, slope stability, site investigation,
design and propose the method to cope with the slope stability problem, design andpreparation of standard drawings of mechanically stabilized earth wall, retaining wall, gabionand soil nail and deformation analysis of concrete face slab and Thermal analysis of concrete
plug using FEM.

2

Volume 4, Issue 2 June 2019

Special Contribution

Rapid Load Test of Piles
Tatsunori Matsumoto
Professor, Graduate School of Science and Technology
Kanazawa University, Kanazawa, Japan
Rapid load test of piles (RLT) is an alternative to the conventional static load test (SLT) and is widely used in Japan becauseof its time and cost effectivenss. In this article, history of the standardization of RLT in Japan, interpretation methods of
RLT signals, newly dveloped RLT device, and a case of comprison of th results of RLT and SLT on an open-ended steel pipe
pile are introduced.
Keywords: load-displacement relation, falling mass rapid load test method, interpretation method, standards
1. History of Rapid Load Test in JapanThe first rapid load test (RLT) in Japan was carried out by Takenaka Corporation in 1992 on a cast-in-place concrete pile.
The Statnamic was employed in the test. The well-known method of rapid load testing, Statnamic, was developed by thecollaboration of TNO in the Netherlands and Berminghammer Co. in Canada (Middendorp et al., 1993) [1].
A private research group for RLT was launched in 1993 led by Prof. Osamu Kusakabe (Prof. of Tokyo Institute of Technology
at that time, and the president of IPA at present). The research group was composed of general contractors, piling
contractors, pile load test companies, pile manufactures and academics. The objectives of the research group were 1) tocompile the existing knowledge of RLT, 2) to examine basic characteristics and applicability of RLT to Japanese soils, and
3) to establish interpretation methods of RLT. The outcomes of the activity of the research group were presented in the
1st International Statnamic Seminar (1995) [2] held in Vancouver, Canada.
The research committee for RLT was formed in Japanese Geotechnical Society (JGS) in 1997, based on the activity of theresearch group, with research targets of 1) definition of rapid load test, 2) interpretation methods, 3) preparation of
testing manual and 4) standardization of testing method. The outcomes of the research committee were presented in
the 2nd International Statnamic Seminar (1998) [3] held in Tokyo, Japan. The research committee was upgraded to thestandardization committee of JGS in 1998. JGS 1815-2002: Method for Rapid Load Test of Single Piles [4] was standardized
in 2002. JGS 1815-2002 is the first standard for RLT in the world. After the standardization of RLT, use of RLT has been
widened in Japan.
Force

2. Definition of Rapid Load Test in JGS 1815-2002

ILT
(DLT)

JGS 1815-2002 clearly defines RLT. Fig. 1 shows anillustration of loading duration and characteristic curvesof a stress-wave propagating in a pile having a length, L.
Loading duration, tL, in impact load test (ILT) is 5 to 10 ms,
while tL in RLT ranges typically from 50 to 100 ms. Stresswave caused at the pile head propagates up and down in
the pile with a propagation speed, c. Relative loading
duration, RT, is defined as

RLT

Time

Pile

Time

(1)

RT is the number of return traveling of the stress-wave inthe pile during the loading duration, tL. If RT is equal or
greater 5, the influence of the wave propagation in thepile could be negligible (Nishimura et al., 1998) [5] so thatthe pile body could be assumed as a rigid, although theinertial force of the pile body needs to be considered.
Dynamic load tests with the condition of RT ≥5 is definedas RLT.

Characteristic
curves ofa stress-wave

Length, L

RT = tL/(2L/c)

Loading duration of RLT, tL

Time
2L/c
2L/c: return travelling time of stress-wave in pile
c: longitudinal wave propagation velocity

Fig. 1. Comparison of loading duration [4]3Volume 4, Issue 2 June 2019
3. Rapid Load Test Devices
Loading mechanism of the well-known Statnamic device is launching areaction mass placed on the pile head by the gas explosion pressure.
At the same time, the gas explosion force pushes the pile gently
downward. The maximum acceleration of the reaction mass caused
during loading is about 5g. Hence, weight of the reaction mass is about
20% of the planned maximum load. An advantage of the Statnamic ishigh loading capacity up to 60 MN. However, repeated loading isdifficult in the Statnamic.
Another type of RLT device is a falling-mass type device. Fig. 2 is an
example of falling-mass type device, called Hybridnamic, developed by
Jibanshikenjo Co. Ltd. In the falling-mass type device, a hammer massis free-dropped from a certain height onto the pile head through a softcushion on it. Relatively wide ranges of the loading duration and the
maximum force can be realised by adjusting combination of thestiffness of the cushion and the hammer mass. A great advantage ofthe Hybridnamic is that repeated loading is conducted very easily. It is
possible to conduct 10 blows (tests) on a pile in a day. It is a common
practice in the Hybridnamic to apply several blows on a pile withincreasing the drop height of the falling hammer.

Fig. 2. Falling-mass device with soft cushion(provided by Jibanshikenjo Co., Ltd.)

4. Interpretation method of RLT signals
Generally, force applied to the pile head, Frapid, is measured
via a load cell, and acceleration at the pile head, , ismeasured via accelerometers. The velocity of the pile, v, isobtained from time integration of the measured . An
optical displacement meter is employed to measure thepile head displacement, w.

FrapidInertia of pile ，Ra = M 

If Tr = tL/(2L/c) ≥5, the pile body could be treated as a rigid
body having a mass of M. Fig. 3 shows a modelling of pileand soil during RLT. Frapid is the sum of inertia of the pile,
Ra, and the soil resistance, Rsoil (Eq. 1). It is assumed thatsoil resistance, Rsoil, is the sum of the static soil resistance,
Rw, and the dynamic soil resistance, Rv (Eq. 2). Rd is
assumed to be proportional to the pile velocity, v, with aconstant value of damping factor, C. Hence, Rsoil is readily
obtained from the measured Frapid and  (Eq. 2).
(1)

Rsoil = Rw + Rv = Rw + Cv = Frapid − M(2)

C = ( Rsoil max − Rw ULP ) / v *(3)

Rw = Rsoil − Cv

(4)

Dynamic
soil resistance,
Rd = C v（Linear dashpot）

Fig. 3. Modelling of pile and soil during RLT [1, 6]

Force (MN)
Rw ULP Rsoil max

0

1

2

3

4

5

0

Pile head disp., w (mm)Frapid = Ra + Rsoil = M + Rsoil

Static soil
resistance, Rw（Non-linear
spring）

Fig. 4 is an example of thus obtained Rsoil vs w. The point at
the maximum displacement, wmax, is call Unloading Point(ULP). The velocity of the pile, v, is zero at ULP. Hence, Rsoil
at ULP is regarded as the maximum of the static soil
resistance, Rw ULT. The damping factor, C, is estimated fromthe difference of Rsoil max and Rw ULT (Eq. 3). Finally, Rw vs w
is obtained using C and v (Eq. 4). Rw vs w is called "derived
static load-displacement curve".

Rsoil

10
20

Rw

30
wmax

40
50

Cv*
Unloading point, ULP(v = 0)Fig. 4. Unloading Point Method (ULPM) for obtaining
static load-displacement curve4Volume 4, Issue 2 June 2019
If multiple blows with increasing the drop height of hammer are carried, interpretation of RLT signals becomes easier, as
shown in the next section.
5. Comparative SLT and RLT on an Open-ended Steel Pipe Pile
Results of comparative SLT and RLT on an open-ended steel pipe pile (Hoshino et al., 2012) [7] are briefly introduced inthis section.
The pile having a length of 15.5 m, an outer diameter of 1.0 m and a wall thickness of 14 mm was installed in the sandy
ground by a water jet vibratory installation method (Fig. 5). The bottom 4.5 m section of the pile was embedded into thesand rock layer having SPT N-values greater than 50.
The conventional SLT was carried out for the pile with a loading sequence shown in Fig. 6. It took 6 hours to complete fiveloading cycles of the SLT. Each load step was maintained for one hour, and finally the maximum load of 9000 kN was
applied.

Test
pile
0 10 20 30 40 50 60
SPT N-value

10000

Fill

Pile head load (kN)02Depth, z (m)46Sandy silt
Sandy silt

8
10
12

Sand rock

Silty sand

8000
6000
4000
2000

14

0
0

16
18

1

2

3

4

5

6

7

8

Elapsed time (hr)Sand rockFig. 6. Loading sequence in SLT

20

Fig. 5. Soil profile at the test site

RLT of the pile was carried out subsequently to the SLT. A
total of 8 blows were applied to the pile using a hammer
mass of 22 tonnes. Fig. 7 shows Frapid vs time in the lastblow. The loading duration, tL, was 60 ms that resulted in
the relative loading duration Tr = tL/(2L/c) = 9.7 (c = 5000m/s). As mentioned above, Tr =9.7 ≥ 5 satisfies thecriterion for RLT.

Pile head force, Frapid (kN)

10000

Fig. 8 shows Fsoil vs w in all the 8 blows. The red line is theconnection of ULPs which can be regarded as the staticload-displacement curve.

8000
6000
4000
2000
0
60

Static load-displacement curves from the SLT and the RLTs
are compared in Fig. 9. Note here again that the RLTs wereconducted after the 5th loading cycle in the SLT.

80

100

120

140

160

Time, t (ms)Fig. 7. An example of RLT load

Load-displacement curve in the 5th loading cycle of the SLT and Fsoil vs w from the RLTs are shown in Fig. 10, in which thepile head displacement at the start of loading was zeroed for comparison purpose. It is seen that the curve derived fromthe RLT is almost equal to that obtained from the SLT.
5

1200 01000 0
8000
6000
4000
2000
0

0

10

20

30

40

Pile head displacement (mm)Static pile head force (kN)

Fig. 8. Fsoil vs w from RLTs with different falling height of hammer, and ULPs
10000

from SLT
from RLT

8000
6000
4000
2000
0
0

20

40

60

80

100

Pile head displacement (mm)Fig. 9. Load-displacement curve in SLT and Fsoil vs w from RLTs

Static pile head force (kN)

Soil resistance, Fsoil (kN)

Volume 4, Issue 2 June 2019

10000
8000
6000
4000

from SLT(5th loading cycle)

2000

from RLT
0
0

10

20

30

40

50

60

Pile head displacement (mm)Fig. 10. Comparison of static load-displacement curves from SLT and RLTs
6

Volume 4, Issue 2 June 2019
Fig. 11 shows the axial forces in the pile measured in the SLT and the RLTs at the maximum pile head load of 9000 kN, andthe distributions of the shaft resistance estimated from the axial forces in the pile. The results from the SLT and the RLT
are comparable, showing that RLT is an alternative to the conventional SLT.
024Depth, z (m)from SLT
from RLT

from SLT
from RLT

6
8
10
12
14
0

2000 4000 6000 8000 10000

Pile axial force (kN)

0

200

400

600

800

Shaft resistance (kPa)(a) Axial forces in pile(b) Shaft resistanceFig. 11. Axial forces in pile and shaft resistance
The above case study was carried out for the sandy ground. Brown (2009) [8] pointed out that the static loaddisplacement curve derived using UPM (Unloading Point Method) is still influenced by the strain rate effects of thesurround soils, especially in clay ground. The initial parts of the static curves (working load range) from SLT and RLT arecomparable, while the ultimate load derived from ULM is overestimated by 50% in maximum. This information is usefulwhen RLT is used for design purpose of piles in clayey grounds.
6. Concluding Remark
The author's belief is that the performance of a pile installed using Press-in Method is higher than that of the same pile
installed using the other installation methods. This belief, however, needs to be verified through load testing on
constructed piles. A handy load test may be possible using the Press-in machines, although the maximum load is limited
to 3 MN. The rapid pile load testing is one of useful tools to conduct load tests on many piles, because of its time and costeffectiveness as well as a reasonable reliability.
References[1] Middendorp, P., Bermingham, P. and Kuiper B.: Statnamic testing of foundation pile, Proc. 4th Int. Conf. on Applicationof Stress-Wave Theory to Piles, The Hague, pp.585-588, 1993.
[2] Proc. 1st Int. Statnamic Seminar, Vancouver, Canada, 1995.
[3] STATNAMIC Loading Test (Kusakabe, Kuwabara & Matsumoto Ed.), Proc. 2nd Int. Statnamic Seminar, Tokyo, Japan,
1998.
[4] Standards of Japanese Geotechnical Society for Vertical Load Tests of Piles, JGS 1815-2002: Method for Rapid Load
Test of Single Piles, 2002.
[5] Nishimura, S., Shibata, A., Yamashita, K., Kita, N. Ogita, N. and Ishida, M.: One dimensional stress wave simulation
analysis of Statnamic load test, evaluation of boundary between Statnamic and dynamic loading tests, Proceedings
the 2nd Statnamic Seminar, Tokyo, pp.337-344, 1998.
7

Volume 4, Issue 2 June 2019[6] Kusakabe, O. and Matsumoto, T.: Statnamic tests of Shonan test program with review of signal interpretation, Proc.
1st Int. Statnamic Seminar, Vancouver, Canada, pp.113-122, 1995.
[7] Hoshino, M., Sato, K., Takano, K., Kamei, S. and Nishimura, S.: A comparison between static load test and rapid load
test for a steel pipe pile installed by water jet vibratory technique, Proceedings of the 9th International Conference on
Testing and Design Methods for Deep Foundations (IS-Kanazawa 2012), Kanazawa, pp.581-585, 2012.
[8] Brown, M.: Chapter 2 Recommendations for Statnamic use and interpretation of piles installed in clay, Rapid Load
Testing on Piles, pp.26 - 36, Taylor & Francis Group, London, UK, 2009.

◆ A brief CV of Prof. Tatsunori Matsumoto

Professor Tatsunori Matsumoto obtained his Bachelor of Engineering and Master of Sciencefrom Kanazawa University, Japan. He joined the Department of Civil Engineering of Kanazawa
University in 1981 as research associate. He became an Associate Professor in 1991 andpromoted to a Professor from August in 1999.
He retains an active involvement in research into pile dynamics and deformation of pilefoundations including piled rafts subjected to load combinations. He has published more than
200 technical papers including more than 45 Journal papers.
He was the Chairman of IS-Kanazawa 2012: The 9th International Conference on Testing and
Design Methods for Deep Foundations held in Kanazawa, Japan, from 18 to 20 September,
2012.

8

Volume 4, Issue 2 June 2019

Series Report: Reports from USA (Part 2)

Riverine Levee Improvements in Densely Populated Areas
with Press-in Piling Method
Takefumi Takuma
Giken Ltd.
c/o Giken America Corp., 5850 T.G. Lee Blvd., Suite 535, Orlando, FL 32822
Phone: 407-380-3232, E-mail: takefumi_takuma-email@yahoo.co.jp
ABSTRACT
Levees are protecting people’s lives and properties from flooding worldwide. However, they need to be improved
according to the changes in their performance requirements and/or applicable design codes. Steel sheet piles are used
for retrofitting many existing earthen levees for their speedy constructability, stable quality, high strength, and lasting
durability. This paper will study two riverine levee improvement projects in densely populated areas that utilized pressedin sheet piles in order to control noise and vibration associated with pile driving.
ADAVANTAGES OF THE PRESS-IN PILING METHOD
The most common press-in piling machines such as Giken’s Silent Pilers use hydraulic force to press piles into the groundby holding onto a few previously installed piles. To summarize the advantages of the press-in piling of this type over othermethods:
1. It generates very low noise and is practically vibration free (White et al., 2002).
2. The press-in piling machine is relatively small and its clamping points are much lower than those with other piling
methods. The lower clamping points enable the equipment to work in physically tight working conditions, horizontallyand vertically, such as an area under railway girders (Takuma et al., 2015) or right next to existing sensitive structures(Takuma et al., 2013).
3. With attachments, it can deal with hard soil conditions very effectively (Takuma et al., 2018).
4. It can achieve much more accurate pile installation due to a combination of the machine’s better control of the piles
and low clamping points.
A high pressure jetting or continuous flight auger attachment will be coupled with a press-in piling machine when
installing piles in hard soil conditions. The water jet attachment is good for dense sand and silt layers, while the auger
attachment facilitates pile installation into stiff clay, gravels, cobbles, boulders and soft rock. These attachments work
simultaneously with pile driving, minimizing settlement of the surrounding ground.
In the case that access to a piling location isvery limited, the Giken Reaction Base (orGRB) System may provide a solution with a
Clamp Crane, which clamps onto and moves
on previously driven piles; and Pile Runner,which travels also on the driven piles
between the Clamp Crane and a faraway
material supply point. The piling operation
can be done without an access road with thissystem. See Fig. 1 for the concept of the GRB
system in the case of a pipe pile application.

Fig. 1. GRB System Operation without an Access Road

9

Volume 4, Issue 2 June 2019
GARDERE CANAL IMPROVEMENTS – PHASE 2 IN HARVEY, LOUISIANAThe Gardere Canal is located in the New Orleans southern suburb of Harvey in Jefferson Parish on the west bank of theMississippi River while majority of the City of New Orleans is on the other side. This SELA-06 Gardere Canal Phase 2
project was part of the multi-year Southeast Louisiana Urban Flood Control Project (abbreviated as the SELA Project) by
the US Army Corps of Engineers and the Sewerage and Water Board of New Orleans to enhance the flood control ability
in New Orleans and its surrounding areas. The entire SELA project was authorized by the United States Congress in 1996,
prompted by the May 1995 Louisiana Flood and worked on in segments and phases. The construction of this particularsection started in March, 2007. Approximately 4,000 pairs of PZ35 sheet piles were installed to form a wider concretelined drainage channel for a higher discharge capability. See Fig. 2 for its typical cross section. The press-in piling was
specified to minimize the noise and vibration levels of the sheet pile installation work since the canal ran through densely
populated residential and commercial areas. As shown in the boring data (Fig. 3), the soil was mostly soft clay except asilty fine sand layer with the SPT value of about 30 between 5.5m and 7.0m below the GL.

Fig. 2. Typical Cross Section

Fig. 3. Soil Conditions and Sheet Pile Location
Fig. 4 shows the canal’s typical conditions prior to improvement. As can be noted, the levees on both sides were borderingwith backyards of the area’s houses. Two units of Silent Pilers were used to facilitate progress of the sheet pile installation.
A small caterpillar-mounted service crane was hoisting the sheets to both equipment as shown in Fig. 5. The construction
noise and vibration were successfully mitigated.

Fig. 4. Gardere Canal before Improvement

Fig. 5. Two Silent Pilers at Work10

Volume 4, Issue 2 June 2019
Giken America Corp. (Giken’s U.S. subsidiary) and later Blue
Iron Foundations and Shoring LLC took care of the press-in
piling work under B&K Construction Company, Inc. of
Mandeville, Louisiana. The press-in sheet pile installation
was completed in the spring of 2010. Fig. 6 shows thecompleted levee improvement work. There have been an
increased number of projects with the press-in piling
specified in this region including other SELA projects since
this one.

Fig. 6. Completed Gardere Canal Improvement
SANDALWOOD CANAL IMPROVEMENTS IN JACKSONVILLE, FLORIDA
Sandalwood Canal In-channel Improvements Project (Hodges Blvd. from Beach Blvd. to Atlantic Blvd., Project No. P-8001) was to repair the damaged earthen levees by an earlier flooding as well as to increase the drainage capacity of an
existing canal by widening/deepening with sheet piles installed in the levees located in a densely populated residential
area of Jacksonville, Florida. Fig. 7 illustrates its typical cross section with the broken line showing the existing ground.

Fig. 7. Typical Cross Section
In order to minimize noise/vibration and also to reduce in-stream exposure time of piling equipment during construction,
two units of Silent Pilers were used, so the work was to be done only during the dry season of winter. The soil conditions
were primarily sandy with the SPT values of between 10 and 45 as shown in Fig. 8.
The noise and vibration levels during the sheet pile driving were limited by the project specifications that stated: “Thehydraulic press-in equipment shall not produce more than 70dB of noise, at a distance of 25 feet from the equipment,
while in operation. It shall not produce any measurable vibration at the ground surface, at a distance of 25 feet from theequipment, while in operation.”
The project was started off with clearing of vegetation overgrown on the levees. Fig. 9 shows the conditions after thevegetation removal. As can be seen, the widths of the levee’s shoulders were too narrow (approximately 3m on the widerside) for a truck crane to maneuver through. Therefore, a 10ton-capacity Clamp Crane was used with small flatbed trucks
delivering sheet piles to the crane by driving on the levee’s wider shoulder. A weir was first built with pressed-in sheet
piles as shown in Fig. 10.

11Volume 4, Issue 2 June 2019

Fig. 9. Sandalwood Canal after Removal of Vegetation

Fig. 8. Soil Conditions and Sheet Pile Location

Fig. 10. Sheet Piles Installation for Weir
The Clamp Crane was hoisting sheet piles to both Silent Pilers (Fig. 11). Approximately 950 pairs of 7.0m to 9.0m-long
PZC18 sheet piles were installed without causing damage to nearby homes. Fig. 12 shows the completed section of sheet
pile walls. The project’s owner was the City of Jacksonville with its design consultant being CDM’s Jacksonville office.
Giken America Corp. pressed in all the sheet piles under Felix Associates, LLC located at Stuart, Florida. The duration of
sheet pile installation was between November 2007 and February 2008.

Fig. 12. Completed Sheet Pile Installation

Fig. 11. Clamp Crane Pitching Sheet Piles to Silent Piler
12

Volume 4, Issue 2 June 2019
CONCLUSIONS
Sheet piles are commonly used for improvement work of existing levees. Noise and vibration associated with conventional
sheet pile installation can be easily mitigated with the use of press-in piling as exemplified by the case study projects. The
GRB system in combination with press-in piling enables sheet pile installation where supplying sheet piles to the piling
location is otherwise extremely difficult due to lack of sufficient access. Many levee improvement projects in various partsof the U.S. have been and will be increasingly adopting pressed-in sheet piles next to residential/commercial properties
and to other sensitive structures like underground utilities and bridge foundations.
REFERENCES
Takuma, T., Nishimura, H., and Kambe, S. (2013), Low Noise and Low Vibration Tube Pile Installation by the Press-In
Piling Method, Proceedings of Deep Foundations Institute 2013 Annual Conference
Takuma, T., Nishimura, H., and Kambe, S., (2015), Development of Very Low Head Room Sheet Piler Press in Driver,
Proceedings of 2015 International Foundations Congress and Equipment Expo
Takuma, T., DellAringa, C., and Nagano, M., Retrofitting Drainage Systems with Pressed-In Sheet Piles in Very Hard Soil inSouthern California, (2018), Proceedings of Deep Foundations Institute 2018 Annual Conference
White, D., Finlay, T., Bolton, M. and Bearss, G. (2002), “Press-in Piling: Ground Vibration and Noise During Piling
Installation”, Proceedings of the International Deep Foundation Congress, ASCE Special Publication 11613Volume 4, Issue 2 June 2019

Serial Report

Terminologies in Press-in Engineering (Part 5)
IPA Editorial Committee
Following Terminologies Press-in Engineering (Part 4) in Volume 4, Issue 1, Part 5 presents “Non-staging system” andrelated piles” as follows:

Non-staging system
Pile/sheet pileNon-staging systemcounter weighta press-in system that enables all the piling machineries necessary for the press-in
operation to move by itself (self-walking) on the previously installed piles/sheet
piles
weight to be placed on the reaction stand to obtain reaction force to commence
the press-in operation

reaction standa stand for counter weights obtaining reaction force for the installation of a an
initial few piles/sheet piles to commence press-in operation

Unit runner

one of the components of the Non-staging system with clumping mechanism tocarry a power unit and travels on the previously installed piles/sheet piles

Pile runner

one of the components of the Non-staging system with clamping mechanism totransport piles/sheet piles and travels on the previously installed piles/sheet piles

Clamping crane

crane grips the previously installed piles/sheet piles with a clamping mechanism.
An element of the Non-Staging system with self-walking function

pile(s) / sheet pile(s)piles and/or sheet piles to be installed.

(to be continued on Part 6)
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Volume 4, Issue 2 June 2019

ReportSite Visit on the Keihin Canal Seawall heled by TC1
Naoki Suzuki
Member, IPA TC1
IPA Technical Committee TC1 (Application of cantilever type steel tubular pile wall embedded to stiff ground, Chair:
Associate Professor Jiro Takemura) is working to propose a more reasonable design method of cantilever walls. TC1
conducted an on-site visit for the purpose of understanding the characteristics of the rotary press-in method, which isoften used for piling large-diameter piles into stiff ground, and fostering young engineers, on Feb. 20, 2019.
On the site, the Keihin Canal seawall is to be developed for the purpose of countermeasures against earthquake, tsunami
and storm surge based on “Port of Tokyo Coastal Preservation Facility Preparation Plan”. A cantilevered quay wall withsteel tubular piles and steel tubular sheet piles will be built next to existing sheet pile quay wall with vertical pileanchorage, which was constructed in 1963. The main issues are the presence of common duct, low-level work under agirder (Photo 1), a surface rubble layer and a deep gravel layer (maximum N value is over 150), and the rotary press-in
method has been adopted to overcome these concerns.
On the day, installation of steel tubular piles subsequent to excavation of rubbles and sands to make a working space forwork-ships were implemented. We were explained about the construction plan and observed the press-in process ofpiling small diameter steel tubular piles. 14 participants who are TC1 members, students or young GIKEN Ltd. staffs visited
the site (Photo 2). The following are the comments from the participants:“We visited the site where the rotary press-in method is adopted. This was the first time for me to visit the site
employing this method. I was able to observe a series of the construction of the rotary press-in method such as the pressof steel tubular piles and the welding of joints. I was really impressed that there was no vibration, no noise in thisconstruction, with various limitations such as the surface rubble layer, narrow working space with height restrictions, andsidewalks passing immediately near the site.”
From Kohei Sawada, Secretary general of TC1“In my opinion, the most challenging situation is the presence of the existing bridge over the site because the pile length
was high and it will be difficult to cast the pile as a whole. I really appreciate their innovative way to cut the pile in small
sections and cast those small sections one by one by the Gyropress method which is highly appropriate for the difficult
situation like this. Besides that, the construction creates less noise, takes few times for casting and most interestingly
takes less workspace which is highly appreciable.”
From S M Shafi, M1 Student of Tokyo Institute of Technology“Although I am studying on a reasonable design of cantilever type steel tubular pile walls mainly based on data analysis,
I had not had the opportunity to visit a construction site of steel pile retaining walls, so I was not able to imagine an actual
construction. Therefore, it was a very valuable experience for me to have the opportunity of this site visit. I have learned
how steel tubular piles were installed by the rotary press-in there and this experience made me realized that my study
and research work are closely related to actual constructions. I would like to express my sincere appreciation to have thevaluable opportunity which gave me strong encouragement of my study before I proceed to the master's degree program.”
From Koji Mochizuki, B4 Student of Tokyo Institute of Technology.
Finally, I really appreciate all the help that Bureau of Port and Harbour, Tokyo and Toyo Construction Co.,Ltd. have done
for us.

Photo 1. Overview of the piling construction

Photo 2. Group photo15

Volume 4, Issue 2 June 2019

Announcements

Ordinary General Assembly 2019
IPA Secretariat
The IPA Ordinary General Assembly 2019 was held from 10 to 24 June, 2019. The total votes achieve the quorum and allpresented Agendas were resolved in accordance with Article 22 of Cositution.
・Period:・Meeting place:・Agendas:・Numbers of members:
・Quorum:・Total votes:

10 to 24 June 2019
IPA Website (on-line voting through the Members Site)
https://www.press-in.org/en/page/general_assemblies
661
332
430

Votes on each Agenda:

Affirmative Dissenting
votes
votes

AgendasResults

Agenda 1

Activity Report 2018

429

1

Approved

Agenda 2

Income & Expenditure Statement for the fiscal year 2018
(includes the brief Income & Expenditure Statement for
ICPE2018)

429

1

Approved

Agenda 3

Activity Plan 2019429

1

Approved

Agenda 4

Budget for the fiscal year 2019429

1

Approved

Agenda 5

Election of the Directors and Auditors for the terms
2019–2020

429

1

Approved

The list below shows the outgoing and the incoming members of IPA Board members. May thanks go to the outgoingboard members and auditors for their great contributions during the terms and very welcome goes to the new Board
members.

Incoming Board Members
Director

Director

Director

Prof. Alexis Philip A. Acacio (PHL)
Professor, University of the Philippines,
DilimanPresident of the Philippine Society of Soil
Mechanics and Foundation Engineering

Prof. Mounir Bouassida (TUN)
Professor, University of Tunis El Manar
Past Vice President for Africa of ISSMGE

Prof. Marcos Massao Futai (BRA)
Professor
University of Sao Paulo
Head of Geoinfra, University of
Sao Paulo

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Volume 4, Issue 2 June 2019

Director

Director

AuditorMr. Kiyoshi Minami (JPN)Managing Executive Officer
Muramoto Corporation
Past President of the Japan Construction
Method and Machinery ResearchInstitute (Japan)

Prof. Hiroko Suzuki (JPN)
Prpfessor
Faculty of Creative Engineering
Chiba Institute of Technology

Prof. Guixuan Wang (CHN)
Professor
Civil Engineering Technology
R&D Center
Dalian University

Director

Director

AuditorProf. Rodrigo Salgado

Mr. Hiroyuki Yasuoka

Associate Prpf. Abert T. Yeung

Outgoing Board Members:

Announcement

IPA Library opened
IPA Secretariat
IPA Library was opened in June 2019 and aims tocollect and store the documents and information
in a wide range of specialized fields such as civilengineering, construction and machinery for
research activities. There are around 400 books,
including technical books and proceedings in
English or Japanese. Please click the following URL
for more details.
https://www.press-in.org/en/page/IPA_library17

Volume 4, Issue 2 June 2019

Event Diary
Title■ IPA Events

Date

Venue

https://www.press-in.org/en/event

11th IPA Press-in Seminar 2019 in Tokyo

September 18, 2019

Tokyo, Japan

International Society for Soil Mechanics and Geotechnical Engineering
http://www.issmge.org/events
1ST MGS - GEOSS GEOTECHNICAL CONFERENCE 2019:“GEOTECHNICS IN URBAN INFRASTRUCTURE”

June 24-26, 2019

Petaling Jaya, Malaysia

7TH ASIA-PACIFIC CONFERENCE ON UNSATURATED SOILS

August 23-25, 2019

Nagoya, JapanECSMGE 2019 – XVII European Conference on Soil
Mechanics and Geotechnical Engineering

September 1-6, 2019

Reykjavik, Iceland

THIRD INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCE “CHALLENGES INGEOTECHNICAL ENGINEERING” CGE-2019

September 9-13, 2019

Zielona Gora, Poland

INTERNATIONAL SYMPOSIUM ON GEOTECHNICALASPECTS OF HERITAGE STRUCTURE

September 16-18, 2019

Chennai, India■ Deep Foundations Institutehttp://www.dfi.org/dfievents.asp

HPW-DFI Helical Piles-Tiebacks-Anchors Tradeshow and
Educational Seminar

June 4-5, 2019

Cincinnati, United States

S3: Slope - Support - Stabilization

August 6-8, 2019

Minneapolis, United States

BICES (Beijing International Construction Machinery
Exhibition & Seminar)
http://www.e-bices.org/engdefault.aspx

September 4 -7, 2019

Beijing, China

Infrastructure Vietnam
http://www.confexhub.com/

July 25-26, 2019

Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam

Maintenance and Resilience 2019 in Tokyo
https://www.jma.or.jp/mente/index.html

July 24-29, 2019

Tokyo, Japan■ Construction Machinery Events■ International Geosynthetics Society
7th ICEGE (International Conference on Earthquake
Geotechnical Engineering)
http://www.7icege.com/

http://www.geosyntheticssociety.org/calendar/
June 17-20, 2019

Roma, Italy

September 25-29, 2019

Bali, Indonesia■ Others
INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCE ON LANDSLIDES ANDSLOPE STABILITY (SLOPE 2019)https://www.slope2019.com/

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Volume 4, Issue 2 June 201919

Volume 4, Issue 2 June 201920

Volume 4, Issue 2 June 2019

Editorial Remarks
The Editorial Board is pleased to publish Volume 4, No.2 issue on schedule. This issue contains messages from IPA
Directors, Associate Prof. Uchimura and Dr. Kittiyodom. The special contribution titled “Rapid Pile Load Testing” written
by Prof. Matsumoto (IPA director), and serial reports from USA and Terminologies are also included.
This issue also includes the report of the site visit which was held by TC 1 and announcements for results of General
Assembly 2019 and opening of IPA Library. IPA hopes that the library will provide more research information to IPA
members.
Please feel free to contact the Editorial board members below with email address or IPA Secretariat (tokyo@press-in.org)
for your clarifications and/or suggestions.

Editorial Board:
Dr. Osamu Kusakabe (ipa.kusakabe@press-in.org)
Prof. Limin Zhang (cezhangl@ust.hk)
Dr. Andrew McNamara (A.McNamara@city.ac.uk)
Mr. Yukihiro Ishihara (ipa.ishihara@press-in.org)
Mr. Kazuyoshi Ishii (ipa.ishii@press-in.org)
Mr. Masafumi Yamaguchi (ipa.ymaguchi @press-in.org)
Ms. Nanase Ogawa (ipa.n.ogawa@press-in.org)
Mr. Yuki Hirose (ipa.hirose@press-in.org)
Mr. Naoki Suzuki (ipa.suzuki@press-in.org)
Ms. Hongjuan He (ipa.ka@press-in.org)

Notice:The Newsletter Vol.4, No.2 released on June 27, 2019 contained an error in the Special Contribution ‘Rapid Load
Test of Piles’. The corrected version was posted on the Web on July 2, 2019.

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