Virginia Lightweight Fill
The Job
This Virginia lightweight fill installation is located Norfolk, Virginia. The placement is part of a low income housing development in an area subject to flooding. The site is located a few blocks from downtown Norfolk.
The Challenge
Like many coastal cities, much of the ground in Norfolk is infill. On this site, fill material was entirely uncontrolled. It included construction debris, organics, and silty sands. In order to bring the finish floor elevations above flood elevation, the site needed to come up by nearly eight feet in some areas.
The Solution
CJGeo worked with the structural engineer to design a lightweight backfill program that would help reduce anticipated settlements. After stone columns were installed across the site, the CMU building walls were built on poured footings. After the walls were in place, CJGeo filled the entire building pads with Ultra Lightweight CJFill, with an average density of 25lb/cuft.
CJGeo batched CJFill-Ultra Lightweight with a 80psi at 28 day minimum compressive strength using the dry batch process onsite, and placed at times more than 1,000 cubic yards per day.
Once the CJFill-Ultra Lightweight was in place, plumbers trenched in plumbing, and placed twelve inches of sand on top of the CJFill-Ultra Lightweight. The work took around two weeks, using the dry batch generation method.
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Basement Wall Load Reducing Fill
The Job
This basement wall load reducing fill project is located in Lexington, Virginia, on a campus of Washington & Lee University. The scope is part of a new academic building construction project. The building will house the Williams School of Commerce, Economics & Politics.
The Challenge
The building is on a sloping site. The front of the building will be slab on grade, and the back half of the building will be a walk-out basement level. The transition between the two floors is an approximately fifteen foot tall wall with two 90’s.
The basement wall is designed to be braced by the floors and building. However, the floors & building couldn’t be built until the wall backfill was in place. In order to backfill the wall, it would need load reducing fill, or it would need temporary bracing.
The Solution
A structural engineer recommended the general contractor reach out to CJGeo about backfilling the wall with CJFill-Ultra Lightweight low density fill. Working with the structural EOR, geotech EOR & general contractor, CJGeo developed a backfilling plan that would allow backfilling the wall over three days while eliminating the need for temporary bracing.
CJGeo poured three lifts, each about 4.5′ deep. A dry batch process plant running at up to 200 cubic yards per hour and using preformed foam from Aerix Industries backfilled the wall in three days.
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Low Density Bridge Underfill
The Job
This low density bridge underfill project is located on Interstate 95, in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. The scope is part of a large widening and reconstruction project. The bridge is located over Carver Street, just south of the Tacony-Palmyra Bridge.
The Challenge
As much underfill as possible had to be in place prior to the bridge demolition. Otherwise, it would have been impossible to demolish the deck, beams & other structures during a limited closure. There are also multiple underlying utilities which would not tolerate the nearly 5ksf of additional dead load from using traditional flowable fill.
The Solution
In order to fill up to the bottom of the beams, CJGeo designed a mass fill placement plan that stepped in at a roughly 1.5H:1V slope. CJGeo batched CJFill-Ultra Lightweight with a 40psi at 28 day minimum compressive strength using the dry batch process onsite, and placed at times more than 1,000 cubic yards per day.
Once the CJFill-UL was in place to complete this low density bridge underfill, the customer was able to demolish the bridge and beams, only need to bring in a few feet of crushed stone for the pavement base, and then pave the roadway to restore traffic. This was performed during an accelerated closure to minimized traffic disruption. The total time onsite to place all 10,000 cubic yards of foamed concrete was about two weeks start to finish.
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Lightweight MSE Wall Backfill
The Job
This MSE wall lightweight backfill project is located near Chester, Virginia. The MSE wall is part of a ramp reconfiguration and lengthening project at the interchange of Rt 10 and Interstate 95. Specifically, this ramp is from westbound Rt 10 to northbound Interstate 95.
As part of the ramp lengthening and realignment, the ramp needed to shift out onto an existing embankment.
The Challenge
There was insufficient right of way to widen the embankment without acquiring additional right of way. In order to shift the road without acquiring additional land, the geotechnical engineer of record, Schnabel Engineering, recommended to building a mid-slope MSE wall. The wall design includes a lightweight reinforced and retained zone to eliminate any net change in load. Effectively, when the slope is notched for the MSE wall construction, the difference in fill density allows for increased height.
The Solution
The existing soils were rough 125lb/cuft, and the CJFill-Ultra Lightweight backfill is 30lb/cuft. This allows for two additional feet of fill depth for every foot of undercutting. The final MSE wall lightweight backfill design included a 140psi minimum 28 day compressive strength (ASTM C495).
It took three lifts to backfill the wall, which was at most eight feet tall, and roughly 150 feet long. A composite drain on the slope addresses and water migration through the soil slope, and ties into a gravel bed at the base of the CJFill-UL load reducing fill.
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Detroit Michigan Annular Space Grouting
The Job
This Detroit Michigan annular space grouting project is located near Van Dyke Avenue & 8 Mile Road. The project owner is Great Lakes Water Authority, and the project is part of the PCI-4 rehabilitation.
The Challenge
As part of the rehabilitation of this large diameter sewer, three different liner systems had to be installed. The longest section of single liner type is approximately 800 linear feet. The concrete sewer’s inner diameter is approximately 17.5 feet. The outer diameter of the liner that the installer subcontracted the annular space grouting to CJGeo on is approximately 16.5 feet.
Based on the theoretical average inside diameter of the existing sewer, the annulus is almost exactly one cubic yard per linear foot.
The Solution
The pipe runs at full charge at least once per day, so there was a high likelihood of accumulated water in the annulus. To displace this water and ensure consistent bearing of the pipe, CJGeo proposed 75lb/cuft CJFill-Under Water. While this density of CJFill cellular grout significantly exceeds the 300psi at 28 day compressive strength requirement, it facilitates displacing solids from the annulus.
To help manage buoyancy, once the first lift was in place, the wet cast density of the cellular concrete on this Detroit Michigan annular space grouting project was reduced to 45lb/cuft CJFill-Standard. Reducing the wet cast density significantly reduces uplift, which allows taller lifts.
CJGeo used an onsite dry mix batch plant to generate the cellular concrete and pump it up to five hundred feet in the sewer line.
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Michigan Pipe Abandonment
The Job
This Michigan pipe abandonment project is located in Grand Rapids, Michigan. As part of the Coldbrook Pumping Station decommissioning project, 2250LF of 48″ pipe, and 2300LF of 60″ pipe were specified for grout filling.
The Challenge
The primary challenge for the general contractor on this project was the sheer volume of abandonment grouting. The project also had a significant amount of smaller diameter pipe, but it was in shorter runs, so was easy for them to self-perform with flowable fill.
The Solution
CJGeo proposed using 25lb/cuft CJFill-Ultra Lightweight cellular concrete. CJFill-Ultra Lightweight can be pumped thousands of feet per placement. This eliminates the need for most intermediate access points. Placement points on this project were in the driveway of a fire station, next to a new riverwalk project, and also on the grounds of the pumping station.
CJGeo mobilized a dry batch cellular grout plant to the site, and made around 200 cubic yards per hour of CJFill-Ultra Lightweight to finish this Michigan pipe abandonment project. Each run was up to 2500 feet long at a time. The abandonment work took five days onsite. By utilizing on site dry batching, a snow storm and cold overnight temperatures did not affect the work.
After the crew was completed with this work, they moved to Detroit to perform annular space grouting on a 17′ diameter CSO outfall structure.
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New Jersey Pipe Abandonment
The Job
This New Jersey pipe abandonment project is located in northern New Jersey. First, the general contractor installed a new force main by micro tunneling. After the the new micro tunneled force main was in service, the existing force main had to have grout filling. The pipe is 24″, and about 6300 feet long.
The Challenge
The pipes ran underneath an existing roadway, so digging access points for flowable fill installation would have been expensive, time consuming, and disruptive to traffic. The general contractor recommended CJFill Low Density Controlled Low Strength Material (LD-CLSM) as an alternative to the controlled low strength material that the township typically uses.
In addition to the old force main abandonment, a wet well structure also required abandonment. The original plan was to use flowable fill, however there were concerns about inducing settlement if the fill material was heavy.
The Solution
CJGeo proposed using 25lb/cuft CJFill-Ultra Lightweight cellular concrete. CJFill-Ultra Lightweight can be pumped thousands of feet per placement. This eliminates the need for most intermediate access points.
CJGeo mobilized a dry batch cellular grout plant to the site, and made around 150 cubic yards per hour of CJFill-Ultra Lightweight to finish this New Jersey pipe abandonment project. Each run was up to 2500 feet long at a time. The abandonment work took two days onsite, with the preformed foam supplied by Aerix Industries. After the abandonment grouting was done, the CJGeo crew did the wet well abandoning work with 25lb/cuft CJFill-Ultra Lightweight.
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New Jersey Lightweight Fill
The Job
This New Jersey lightweight fill project is located in Secaucus, New Jersey. It’s part of a two building, wood framed multifamily structure over a concrete podium. The site is located very close to the Hudson River, so the underlying soils are poor, and there is a high likelihood of future flooding. As a result, the ground was improved using rammed aggregate piers, but then needed to be brought up approximately 2′ above existing grade.
The Challenge
Rammed aggregate piers were only able to improve the site soils so much. To avoid the costs of rigid inclusions or piles, the design team had to reduce the load applied by the backfill needed to elevate the site. The maximum unit weight was 30lb/cuft, and because of potential flooding, the material had to be permeable, in order to reduce uplift potential.
The Solution
CJGeo proposed using 25lb/cuft CJFill-High Permeability to backfill the stem walls, to bring the building pad up approximately two feet. 25lb/cuft CJFill-HP is provides excellent bearing capacity, but is hand excavatable.
Hand excavatability was important on this project. There was extensive under slab plumbing required, and the lightweight fill couldn’t impede on its installation. A great advantage of 25lb/cuft CJFill-HP is that it provides a clean, stable working surface that easily supports mini and mid-size excavators.
CJGeo mobilized a wet batch cellular concrete plant crew to the site. The crew used silt fence to break the roughly 80 thousand square foot pour into roughly 150CY placements. Each individual pour on this New Jersey lightweight fill project allowed the plumbing contractor to drive their mini excavators on it the following day. The plumbers enjoyed the clean, dry working surface.
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Pennsylvania Pipe Abandonment
The Job
This Pennsylvania pipe abandonment project is located at a drinking water reservoir near York, Pennsylvania. As part of a dam reconstruction, the existing outfall pipe was specified for grouted abandonment.
The Challenge
The existing outfall pipe is 48″ cast iron pipe, and approximately 200 feet long. The pipe passes approximately 45 feet below the crest of the earthen embankment, concrete core dam structure. To ensure that the pipe would not serve as a conduit for water after abandonment, the specification calls for cellular grout with a maximum permeability of 1×10-6 centimeters per second.
During design, there were concerns about leaks in the pipe draining out some of the cellular concrete after placement stopped, but before it reached initial set. To address this, a secondary grouting program using chemical grout was designed to top off any void volume in the outfall pipe after the cellular grout set.
The Solution
CJGeo proposed using 60lb/cuft CJFill-Standard cellular grout for the abandonment. 60lb/cuft CJFill-ST exceeds the minimum compressive strength requirement, and has less than 1×10-6 cm/sec permeability.
CJGeo mobilized a dry batch cellular grout plant to the site to complete this Pennsylvania pipe abandonment project. The crew performed the grouting in fewer than two hours. The dry batch plant generates the 60lb/cuft cellular grout onsite directly from bulk cement powder.
Placement was through sacrificial grout pipes installed by the general contractor. The GC also constructed masonry bulkheads on both ends of the structure.
Exploratory holes drilled in the bulkheads the following day confirmed uniform fill, and no need for the secondary grouting work.
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Michigan Water Main Abandonment
The Job
This Michigan water main abandonment project is located in Saginaw, Michigan. It is a 2900LF of 8″ grout fill abandonment for the local municipality.
The Challenge
The utility contractor who installed the replacement water main was required to fill the old pipe with grout after tying in the new pipe. Because of the relatively small diameter, they were going to have to dig approximately 15 access holes if they used traditional flowable fill. The contractor really didn’t want to have to do that. So, they sought a highly mobile grout that would eliminate the need for digging access points.
The Solution
CJGeo proposed using CJFill-Ultra Lightweight cellular grout for this Michigan water main abandonment. Because the project volume is approximately 40 cubic yards. CJGeo proposed using wet batch generation, with a local ready mix provider supplying the raw slurry.
Wet batch generation is well suited for projects like this because the volume of slurry required is much less than a full load of cement. The equipment for wet batch generation is very portable–typically just two pickup trucks, one pulling a 20′ trailer with equipment. Aerix Industries supplied the preformed foam.
Confirmation of fill for this Michigan water main abandonment project was material venting a fire hydrant at the far end of the placement. Pumping pressures were less than 20psi for the duration of the grouting process.
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