Development of Damansara Town Centre lead to upgrade of the interchange of Sprint / Damansara Link / Jalan Semantan / Jalan Maarof roads. This is a heavy traffic road network and needed additional elevated highways to be constructed in a location that is already very busy.
Due to lack of headroom and heavy congestion, caisson piles were used for the construction of additional elevated highways.
Shinei was invited to perform a load test on one of the caisson piles.
A kentledge system load test was not possible due to the location and lack of space. We had to use a reaction load test system. Load test was tested to 600 tons.
Key challenges of this project was the assembly of the pile test in a highly constrained working environment. This was due to:
- Extremely tight workspace with caisson pile is surrounded by heavy traffic on all sides with changing road conditions
- The need to avoid underground utilities as working space was excavated, pile test beams were set up and when ground anchors were installed
- Installation of ground anchors under elevated highway
Mobilisation of plants and equipment had to be done at night as the public road is busy throughout the day and much of the works were carried out during the night.
These ground anchors have to be installed some distance below the caisson pile in order to avoid any interference during the loading stage. The length of installation in weathered to sound rock is 17.0 m.
Tension anchors had to be carefully installed with great precision. Extreme care and study was required to avoid any damages.
Additional safey measures were taken to cover the work area, the public road, the underground utilities and safety of workmen at the site.
Adequate canvas roofing system was set up to protect the entire test set up and site personnel against wet weather.
Upon completion of the load test, a full report was prepared for consultant's approval. The pile test was conducted to a satisfactory level.
