Any construction begins with a zero cycle. These works are associated with digging a foundation pit, which can be of impressive size along its perimeter and depth. A foundation pit located in the city center or in the immediate vicinity of water bodies requires a reliable fence that can protect against soil shedding, landslides and erosion.
In addition, such a fence will serve as the key to the safe conduct of all necessary types of work, primarily related to the installation of the foundation. Today, to solve this problem, sheet pile fencing is used using four different technologies: wall-in-ground construction, tangent piles, impervious curtains and bored section piles. Each technology used to produce sheet pile fencing has its own advantages and disadvantages, and the choice directly depends on the expected loads on the fence, the geological features of the soil and the depth of the pit.
One of the most universal and progressive technologies by which the sheet piling of pits is performed is considered to be a “wall in the ground”. This is the best option for the construction of underground structures that are being built in open pits. To date, there are three main types of walls: impervious, enclosing and supporting. In addition, the sheet wall fencing “wall in soil” differs in the materials used for the construction of the enclosing structure: precast-monolithic, precast and monolithic.
The tongue and groove piling according to the “wall in soil” technology is carried out in several basic steps: development of a trench with the installation of a reinforcing cage, pouring of a trench with concrete mix of the required grade, soil development in the central part of the structure, installation (if necessary) of spacer structures and, at the final stage, construction bottom part of internal structures.
Sheet pile wall-in-ground fencing allows for the construction of:
- in areas where high groundwater levels;
- with the complex shape of structures and its large size in plan;
- with a depth of structures more than 50 meters;
- in close proximity to functioning buildings of any purpose.
The “wall in soil” sheet piling can be applied in any dispersed soil. The only exceptions are quicksand and flowing clay soils. In addition, such a fence is not recommended in areas where groundwater has a high filtration rate. The passage of soils that have solid inclusions of technogenic or natural origin is possible only with the use of special equipment equipped with a milling cutter. The greatest productivity when carrying out works on the installation of sheet piling is possessed by precast-monolithic and precast technologies. The vertical moving pipe method is used when using a monolithic technology for the construction of sheet piling.