Proceedings of the First International Conference on Press-in Engineering 2018, Kochi

Example of Construction of Sheet Pile Walls Using the Cyclic Auger Method forAnti-Seismic Reinforcement of Railway Embankment
Kazuyuki MATSUZAWAManager, Engineering Works Division, Sato Juki Corporation, Tokyo, Japan
Email: k.matsuzawa@satojuki.com

Kenichi SHIRASAKI
President, Sato Juki Corporation, Seiro-machi, Niigata, Japan

Seiji KONYA
Senior Executive Director, Tokyo office, Sato Juki Corporation, Tokyo, Japan

Yoshiteru SUZUKIManager, Piler Division, Kajikawa Construction, Tokyo, Japan

ABSTRACT
A construction of an anti-seismic reinforcement of a railway embankment was undertaken in Yokohama city. The site
was located in a densely populated area. The access road for large vehicles was restricted only on one side of theembankment, i.e. crane work for carrying in equipment and sheet pile materials to the far side working place wasconducted over the railway. Sheet pile walls, having length of 60 m were constructed along the railway at the top of theslopes of the both sides of the embankment. In order to conduct deep augering safely in narrow and small work space,
the cyclic auger method was adopted. In this method, a middle auger and a lower auger were exchanged alternatinglywith advance of piling. Especially in the inbound side, it was difficult to carry in a piler and other equipment across therail way. A 200-ton crane was installed right in front of a local shopping street, until a clamp crane was installed. This
paper introduces the method using a Cyclic auger and reports the difficulty and the resolution in the site.
Key words: Cyclic Auger, GRB System, Narrow Space, Weld Joint, Railway embankment

1. Outline of the project

because the directly access way to the site was not

1.1. Place

available. In addition, work space for piling was also very

JR Yokohama Line is a train line from Yokohama tonarrow. The purpose of this project was to perform sheet

Hachioji through Shin-Yokohama, which is a Shinkansen

piling adjacent to the railway in service, overcoming thesestation. The site is located 4 km northeast from Yokohamadifficulties (IPA, 2017).

Station. At this location, JR Yokohama Line overpasses JR

The site was surrounded by residential structures,

Tokaido Main Line and Yokosuka Line. The embankment

local stores and restaurants. In the outbound side, thewas just behind the abutment of the overpassing bridge ofborder of the site was adjacent to the back of these

the both lines. The location of the site is shown in Fig. 1.

structures. In the inbound side, the border was theretaining wall of the embankment which stood along an

1.2. Background and objectives of the project
In preparation for an expected earthquake beneath thealley. It was near Koyasu station in Keikyu Line withmany pedestrians passing by.

metropolitan area, installation of steel sheet piles wasrequired for reinforcement of the railway embankments(JR East, 2016). Even carrying in equipment was difficult- 489 -Proceedings of the First International Conference on Press-in Engineering 2018, Kochi

Fig. 1

Location of Construction Sites

Fig. 2Top view of the construction site- 490 -Proceedings of the First International Conference on Press-in Engineering 2018, Kochi

Since the site was on the embankment, vehicles could
not enter the site directly. All equipment and materials
were carried in by a crane which was placed on the road,right in front of the entrance of the mall.
2. Structural type and piling method
2.1. Site condition
The first of high-priority issues was how to bring inpiler equipment to the inbound site. Fig. 2 shows the topview of the construction site. A crane could be installed

Photo 1.

The road adjacent to outbound side site

only on the road adjacent to the site. (see Photo 1)
Required working radius to set the piler at the initial
setting place was 34 m. Lifting capacity of a 200-ton crane
was 13.6 ton for the working radius of 34 m, while theweight of the piler machine, SCU-600M, was 15.4 ton
including the reaction base. The chuck frame, having
weight of 4 ton, was decided to be removed from the piler
before bringing in. The total weight decreased to 12 ton
including the piler, reaction base and crane hook (0.6 ton).
All the work using the 200-ton crane was performednighttime after 9:00 p.m., when the traffic of the street wasclosed. And the crane work over the railway was limited

Photo 2.

The inbound side slope before construction started

only for 4 hours after feeding was stopped at 1:30 a.m.
Having considered emergency, it was only 3 hours thatSPT N-valueFillSandy
Silt

2.2. Ground condition

5Fig. 3 shows the soil profiles and SPT N-values fromFillSandy
Claythe boring on each side. The location of the boring, KB6
10and KB7, was illustrated in Fig. 2. The designed sheet pile

values less than ten. Underlying sand layer shows N-15

values approximate 30. But at the depth of 10 m, it
exceeded 50. From the test results, it was decided to use aFillClayey
Sand

5

10Sand15

OrganicSilt
20

crush piler to perform sheet piling.

20

Silty
fine sandGravely sand25Fine
Sand25
MudstoneFig. 4 shows a cross-section of the reinforcement
structures for the embankment. Sheet pile walls
constructed on both sides of the embankment were3030

tensioned by tie wires. The sand layer underlying the(a) Outbound side, KB6

embankment was supposed to be grouted for improvement

Fig. 3- 491 -ClayeySand

Finesand

Mudstone

2.3. Structural type

FillSandy
loam

ClayeySand

Depth (m)The embankment consists of clayey soils with N-SPT N-value
0 1020304050

Sand

Depth (m)level is indicated together.

ProfileSheet pile SP-VL

0 1020304050

L = 16.5m

Profilepiling could be performed in daytime.

Sheet pile SP-VL

After introduction of the GRB system, the sheet

L = 16.5m

could actually be used.

(b) Inbound side, KB7

Soil profiles and SPT N-values

Proceedings of the First International Conference on Press-in Engineering 2018, Kochi

Fig. 4

Cross-section of the structure

over the depth of 15 m. The sheet pile walls were planned

seismic reinforcement for the railway embankment.

to be covered with faced walls at the final stage of theconstruction.

As shown in Fig. 2, 123 Sheet piles, type VL, having
length of 16.5 m, were installed for each side of theThe combined measure, simultaneously using theembankment.

ground improvement which restrains the liquefaction ofthe sandy layer under the railway embankment and sheet
pile walls which tie up the embankment and restrain the2.4. Piling method
A crush piler was used to perform sheet pilingdeformation of the embankment, was adopted as an anti-together with the GRB system to carry out piling in narrow

AA

A

A

B

B

B

B

B A

B AB AB

ABA

B

AA
B

(1)

(2)

(3)

(4)

Fig. 5

(5)

(6)

(7)

(8)

The procedure of Cyclic auger press-in- 492 -(9)

(10)

(11)

Proceedings of the First International Conference on Press-in Engineering 2018, Kochi

space. For the initial stage until a clamp crane was(10) Joint the upper sheet pile by welding to the lower

installed, a 200-ton crane was used to support the auger

pile.

and for other crane works.

(11) Continue simultaneous press-in.

3. Press-in piling
In a narrow work space, safe falling down of the3.2. Initial press in situation for inbound site
It was required to reduce the time using the 200-ton

auger casing was difficult. In order to reduce this risk, thecrane in order to open the street for traffic and to reduce

cyclic auger method was adopted. The casings specified

costs of the crane. In the inbound site, crane work wasfor this method were prepared beforehand.

limited only for 4 hours in one night. In case of
considering emergency, it was practically 3 hours.
Therefore, early introduction of a clamp crane was

3.1. Cyclic auger procedure
Fig. 5 illustrates the steps of procedure. Theexpected.

procedure is as follows;

Fig. 6 shows the layout of equipment in the inbound(1) Completion of press-in.

site. Temporary initial piles and temporary piles for crane(2) Extract the middle auger (A) and detach after theinstallation were pressed in by the piler with the 200-ton

lower auger (B) was suspended to the pile top bycrane. For the temporary piles, lower part of permanent

chain and hook.

sheet pile was used because the welding time was too long(3) Attaching a casing bracket and an auger head at thebottom of (A).

for limited operation time in the night time. Sixteen sheet
piles were required to install a clamp crane and to secure(4) Set a lower sheet pile together with (A).

back space for the piler to move forward. After these piles(5) Completion of simultaneous press-in of (A)pressed in, a clamp crane was installed as shown in Fig. 6.

(6) Detach the upper auger from (A).

After further sixteen of permanent piles were completed,(7) Joint the upper auger to (B).

the temporary piles for the crane were extracted and(8) Extract the auger (B) and detach the auger head andreplaced by permanent piles. Two machines exchanged thebracket at the bottom of (B).

place mutually and further permanent piling shifted to(9) Joint (B) to (A).

daytime work. Carrying in materials had to be done in thenight shift.

Temporary pile for craneinstallation L=9.5m(lower part of permanent pile)

Temporary initial pile

Clamp crane
CB3Reaction
baseFig. 6

Permanent sheet pile
L=16.5m

Crush piler
SCU-600M

Layout of inbound site at introduction of clamp crane- 493 -Proceedings of the First International Conference on Press-in Engineering 2018, Kochi

4.9-ton Crane

Sheet pile cut
into four

Sliding hoist(man-powered)

4.9-ton Crane

Trolley

Trolley

4.9-ton Crane

4.9-ton Crane

Sliding hoist(man-powered)Fig. 7

Conveying of sheet pile material to inbound site

3.3. Carrying in pile materials to inbound site
After the GRB system was introduced, another issue

the maximum weight of 1.0 ton by man-power. The hoist

was how to bring in sheet pile materials to the inbound site.

Fig. 7 is the illustration of carrying in sheet pile

A 50-ton crane could temporarily carry in materials intomaterials. Divided materials were conveyed one by one.

the platform in the outbound site. The sheet piles had been

The crane in the outbound site move a sheet pile near theconveyed from the outbound site to the inbound site acrossoutbound rail track. The beam was set above the sheet pilethe rail road, under the trolley and feeding cable.

at the end of the beam. The sheet pile was lifted and glided

slides easily on the portable beam.

A delivery vehicle for sheet piles carried 18 sets of

toward the inbound track, then put down. The beam wassheet piles at once. A set of sheet piles was divided into

removed and the crane in the inbound site bring the sheet

four. That was because long materials could not be turned

pile in. It took 3 nights for conveying 18 sets of sheet piles.

around in the narrow working platform of the inbound site.
The length of divided pile was less than 6.5 m. They were

3.4. Productivity

temporarily stored in the outbound site.

For the outbound site, initial piling was performed

Two 4.9-ton cranes were installed at each platform.

with a 200-ton crane. Sheet piling progressed one pile a

And a sliding hoist beam, named “Yamakoshi-ki”, was setday, while the pile had to be welded. The work at theup. This equipment provides reduction gears and it can lift

outbound site was not restricted by the train service while- 494 -Proceedings of the First International Conference on Press-in Engineering 2018, Kochi

the closure of the traffic permitted from 9:00 p.m. to 5:00
a.m. With using the GRB system, the piling work
progressed at the constant pace of 2 piles a day.
For the inbound site, temporary piles were conducted
2 piles per night because it was not necessary to joint themby welding. But 16 piles had to be extracted and replacedby permanent piles. The piling work with GRB system
progressed 2 piles per day, while the upper pile and thelower pile had to be prepared before the pile installation.
This will be mentioned in next part.
3.5. Encountered difficulties
The narrowness was the issue, especially in theinbound site. Sheet pile materials had to be divided into
four, at the length of less than 6.5 m. This caused increaseof number of welding works. In order to reduce time forpress-in procedure, the upper two members and lower twomembers were welded respectively before press-in work.
Because of the narrowness of working space, it was alsodifficult to store materials and welded members in theplatform. On the platform was always fulfilled with sheet

Photo 3.

Pile conveyed underneath the clamp cranepiles.
On the second half of pile installation in the inboundsite, the working space was barely available. There wasonly a small scaffold beside the planned sheet pile line.
Moreover, beneath the scaffold was an alley which is not
closed during the construction. The crane could not slew
behind to lift the sheet pile. The width of working space
was only 1 m from the sheet pile center. As shown in
Photo 3, the pile was supplied by pile runner underneaththe clamp crane and lifted carefully between the piler andthe border fence.
4. Concluding remarks
Sheet pile installation were used for a reinforcement

Photo 4.

work of a railway embankment in Yokohama city. The site

Two crush pilers with system conducting sheet

piling on the both side of the embankment

was surrounded by residential buildings and had nosufficient work space for sheet piling.
With adopting the GRB system, sheet piling wasconducted adjacent to the train in service. The security for

The construction under difficult conditions wassuccessfully completed by a pair of crush pilers (Photo 4).

railway service kept steady over the whole construction
period.
The cyclic auger method reduced the risk of cranework because it was not necessary to frequently fall down
the long tall auger.

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Proceedings of the First International Conference on Press-in Engineering 2018, Kochi

ReferencesJR East. 2016. Press release, About anti-seismic
reinforcement construction for railway embankmentin preparation for an earthquake beneath themetropolitan area. (in Japanese)
IPA. 2017. Onsite interview. IPA newsletter, vol. 2-2, pp.
12-16.
Matsuzawa, K., Shirasaki, K., Konya, S. and Suzuki, T.
2018. Example of construction of sheet pile walls foranti-seismic reinforcement of railway embankment.
Proceeding of the First International Conference on
Press-in Engineering 2018, Kochi, (submitted).

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