Sheet Pile Joint Sealing
The Job
This sheet pile joint sealing work is part of the Thimble Shoals parallel tunnel project. The project is located between Islands 1 and 2 of the Chesapeake Bay Bridge Tunnel. The Chesapeake Bay Bridge Tunnel crosses the opening of the Chesapeake Bay, connecting Norfolk/Virginia Beach and the Eastern Shore.
The Challenge
Water was leaking out of a joint in the precast splash wall adjacent to the TBM slurry separation pit. Any time it rained, precipitation landing in the slurry pit would flow out of gaps in the sheet pile wall. It then passed through the roughly 3′ of soil between the sheet pile wall and splash wall, and then out through joints in the splash wall.
The Solution
CJGeo proposed using a single component, hydrophilic chemical grout to seal the joints. Hydrophilic grout is best for this particularly repair because:
- the area is rather dynamic, so hydrophilic’s ability to flex and stretch without tearing helped to ensure longevity
- the area is constantly exposed to moisture, so dimensional stability is not a concern.
A CJGeo chemical grouting crew of three people completed the sheet pile joint sealing repairs in less than a day. Some chemical grout extruded out through the joint in the splash wall. It was broken off flush with the surface and disposed of offsite.
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| Virginia to Maine | Everywhere Else |
| Lauren LeVine | Martha Moore |
| d: 804-471-3022 | d: 804-404-2683 |
Valve Vault Infiltration Grouting
The Job
This valve vault infiltration grouting project is part of the Purple Line project in Maryland. A large diameter water line was relocated, with the tie-in done inside a 10′ diameter vault that was about 20′ deep. The vault structure, which is precast, and set inside a line plate shaft, was leaking at multiple joints and at a poured in place pipe penetration closure.
The Challenge
The vault structure wasn’t concentric in the shaft. This left little room to pour the closure around the pipe penetrations. One of the penetrations leaked, causing the structure to completely fill with water. Per specifications, it needed to be dry.
Most of the shaft was backfilled with 57 stone. Highly permeable backfill material can make water control grouting particularly difficult. When grouting to seal relatively tight leaks in a structure, the less permeable the adjacent soils the better. All grouts want to take the path of least resistance, and with highly permeable backfills, that often means traveling out into, and permeating, the backfill material instead of into tight cracks and water passageways.
The Solution
CJGeo proposed grouting the infiltration points with CJGrout-35NHV61. 35NHV61 is a hydroinsensitive, plural component geotechnical polyurethane, certified for potable water contact. 35NHV61 is a moderately mobile grout, selected to minimize mobility into the 57 stone backfill and reduce material loss during grouting.
CJGeo mobilized a three person crew to the site, and performed the valve vault infiltration grouting over a few hours.
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| Virginia to Maine | Everywhere Else |
| Lauren LeVine | Martha Moore |
| d: 804-471-3022 | d: 804-404-2683 |
Spillway Bridge Grouting
The Job
Two DOT-maintained bridges crossing two privately owned dam spillways had to be closed because of extensive undermining of the spillways. The undermining was allowing nearly all of the flow to happen below the spillway slabs, which caused large sinkholes to form adjacent to and under the roadway pavement, and also led to some settlement of the spillway slabs.
The Challenge
There was very little room to work–just under 4′ of clearance below the bridge beams. Also, the velocity of the water through the voids below the structure was quite high.
The Solution
CJGeo proposed a combination of plural component polyurethane grouting to address the water flows and voids, and hydrophobic chemical grout placed directly into cracks. A single CJGeo grouting crew was able to complete the repairs in a day (roughly 2500sqft of work, and approximately 4500lbs of polyurethane, plus 30 gallons of hydrophobic chemical grout). Dye testing during and after the grouting work confirmed that no more leaks were present under or around the spillway structures.
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| Virginia to Maine | Everywhere Else |
| Lauren LeVine | Martha Moore |
| d: 804-471-3022 | d: 804-404-2683 |
Hotel Basement Water Intrusion Grouting
The Job
This basement water intrusion grouting project was at a hotel in Baltimore, Maryland. It had a continuously wet floor in the basement utility room. Water was oozing out from under the power feed bank housekeeping slab. The housekeeping slab sits directly on top of the floor slab. There were two presumed point sources:
- the unsealed joint between the floor and the wall,
- and the power feed conduit wall penetrations.
The pit where the power conduits came through the wall and turned up into the power feed cabinets was 18″ deep, and always full of water.
The Challenge
Extensive exterior drainage work did not work. It presumed that surface water was flowing down the outside face of the basement wall. Then, through the unsealed floor:wall joint and/or into unsealed joints in the conduits and then through the conduit penetrations. The exterior drainage improvements re-waterproofed approximately 500sqft of wall. They slowed, but did not completely stop the water intrusion.
A forensic engineer overseeing the project reached out to CJGeo about performing chemical grouting inside of the utility room to underseal the floor, and to seal the conduit penetrations.
The Solution
CJGeo proposed chemical grouting utilizing a low viscosity hydrophobic prepolymer chemical grout.
Fibrous material soaked in grout was placed into the utility conduit openings to seal them against water intrusion. The grout injected through the floor extruded up through the joint between the wall and floor, and also through various cracks in the floor.
Upon completion of the basement water intrusion grouting by CJGeo, the conduit pit was dry, and there are no longer any leaks.
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| Virginia to Maine | Everywhere Else |
| Lauren LeVine | Martha Moore |
| d: 804-471-3022 | d: 804-404-2683 |
Launch Shaft Permeation Grouting
The Job
This launch shaft permeation grouting project is located in Fort Myers, Florida. As part of a utility installation project, a 60″ MTBM was being launched from a shaft sunk in the middle of a nest of buried utilities, adjacent to an arterial roadway. Utilities included water, sewer, ITS, traffic signals, and others. The MTBM launch elevation was approximately 18′ below ground water.
The Challenge
The shaft installation contractor and adjacent open cut utility installations had experienced flowing sands, which had proven problematic. The tunneling contractor knew that without increasing the stability of the soils adjacent to 60″ hole they needed to cut in the sheet pile shaft walls, there would likely be significant loss of ground into the shaft, potentially damaging the adjacent utilities and roadway.
Soils excavated from the shaft were primarily fine sands, silty sands, and silt. Previous attempts at grouting the same soils with a prepolymer chemical grout had proven unsuccessful.
The Solution
CJGeo determined that acrylic grout would be the most appropriate. Acrylate can bind the soils together very well. This makes flowing silty sands stand vertically during cutting of the launch hold in the sheet pile wall.
Because acrylic grouts have single digit viscosities, they are able to permeate very find grained soils with ease, ensuring uniform stabilization.
CJGeo performed the launch shaft permeation grouting via holes cut in the sheet piling, and treated an approximately 8CY mass of soil. In addition to grouting the soils immediately adjacent to the launch hole, CJGeo performed leak stop grouting on numerous nuisance leaks throughout the joints of the sheet pile shaft.
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| Virginia to Maine | Everywhere Else |
| Lauren LeVine | Martha Moore |
| d: 804-471-3022 | d: 804-404-2683 |
MTBM Recovery Grouting
The Job
When a 42″ MTBM stopped advancing under the shoulder of I-75 in Miami, Florida, the tunneling contractor had to sink a shaft adjacent to the roadway, and then hand mine in to recover the machine.
The Challenge
The MTBM was stalled approximately four feet from where the recover shaft was sunk. The face of the machine was under the shoulder, and tail of the machine was under the outside lane of the interstate. The machine was approximately 15′ below ground water level, and there was extensive ground water infiltration into the sheet pile rescue shaft.
In order to ensure that the ground would be stable to facilitate hand mining in from the shaft while avoiding settlement of the interstate, the tunneling contractor reached out to CJGeo about increasing the stability of the soils.
While the desire was to increase the stability of the soils, the treated soils needed to be hand excavatable by divers working in a casing slightly larger than the MTBM. Soils in the desired treatment zone included lime rock, course sands and silty sands.
The Solution
CJGeo determined that acrylic grout would be the most appropriate to bind the soils together, significantly reduce their permeability, but still facilitate hand excavation in an underwater confined space.
Because the failure mechanism of the MTBM was unknown, CJGeo grouted the zone between the MTBM face and the rescue shaft, then grouted a collar around the entire MTBM machine in case the machine needed to be completely uncovered.
CJGeo successfully performed the permeation grouting, then divers excavated back to the machine, freeing it. The grouted face held once the receiving ring was installed and the sheet pile wall cut, and was easily excavatable for the divers.
In addition to grouting the soils, CJGeo’s crew also performed grouting of numerous nuisance ground water leaks through various joints in the sheet pile shaft.
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| Virginia to Maine | Everywhere Else |
| Lauren LeVine | Martha Moore |
| d: 804-471-3022 | d: 804-404-2683 |
8″ Toe Drain Abandonment
The Job
Lake Whetstone is an approximately 30-acre manmade impoundment located in Montgomery Village, Maryland. It is utilized for stormwater runoff control, and also recreation, with an approximately 1000LF earthen dam.
As part of a retrofit program of the embankment, two 8″, perforated CMP toe drain pipes need to be grouted for a minimum of 100LF, underactive flow.
The Challenge
Each of the two, 100′ long pipes needed to be grouted full, but could only be accessed from the downstream end of the pipes. One pipe had nominal flow, and the second pipe had approximately 10GPM and discharged through an end wall structure at the stilling basin.
The Solution
The project designer, Gannett Fleming, specified NSF Section 61 certified grout (potable water contact) for the abandonment grout. Due to the “one-shot” nature of the project, above-ground mockups, including sacrificial pipe installation, chemical grout cup testing, yield analysis, and visual inspection, were all required prior to the start of grouting.
CJGeo performed the onsite mockup testing and analysis, and then grouted the two pipes in place successfully over a period of two days onsite.
Acid Drainage Grouting
The Job
A 72″ CMP stream diversion pipe under a coal stockpile at a coal mine in West Virginia was experiencing acidic water infiltration. This was causing bypassed stream water to become acidic, so regulators required all of the stream flow to be pumped to treatment ponds and treated. This was expensive, and the flow volume was greater than the design capacity of the treatment system.
The Challenge
Access was quite challenging; the pipe was either 700LF or 1300LF from the nearest access points to the farthest grouting location. Additionally, the infiltrating water was pH 2.
The Solution
CJGeo recommended a hydrophobic prepolymer chemical grout with an extensive performance history in high acidity environments. CJGeo crews sealed a combination of 20 joint leaks and point infiltration sources using the prepolymer chemical grout.
To address acidic water migrating through the stone dust backfill outside of the pipe, CJGeo crews then grouted an in-situ cutoff wall in the trench just downstream of the lowest leak using permeation grouting. The mine operator installed two dewatering wells immediately upstream of the cutoff wall to intercept and pump out the acidic drainage, to keep it isolated from the stream water.
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| Virginia to Maine | Everywhere Else |
| Lauren LeVine | Martha Moore |
| d: 804-471-3022 | d: 804-404-2683 |
Chemical Underpinning
THE JOB
Water began to seep through the floor of the shop, break room, and bathrooms inside a manufacturing facility. The investigation determined that a water line had broken, and weekend soils below the floor, causing the settlement. Voids were also present.
The Challenge
The client’s primary concern was addressing the stability of the area without affecting normal usage.
THE Solution
CJGeo proposed chemical grouting to stabilize the weakened soils, along with polyurethane grouting to fill voids. Previous repairs to address floor settlement had been completed, so a hydro-insensitive undersealing polyurethane grout was used to ensure stability without lifting the slab.
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| Virginia to Maine | Everywhere Else |
| Kirk Roberts | Martha Moore |
| d: 804-396-4845 | d: 804-404-2683 |
Sand Filter Joint Sealing
The Job
Two underground stormwater sand filters at an apartment community wouldn’t hold water. The structures, which were assembled from 10′ diameter metal pipes needed to pass a water loss test before the property could come off the bond. Previous repairs attempted included the installation of internal joint rings and seals, which did not stop enough flow to pass the water loss tests.
The Challenge
The proposed repair had to accommodate multiple layers of previous repairs. The joints included four different materials–aluminized metal, galvanized metal, neoprene, and polyethylene. The structures were bedded in washed #57 stone and were connected to the stormwater drainage system, so subject to live flow.
The Solution
Sprayed high-density polyurethane/polyurea hybrid to seal the joints internally. In addition, chemical grouting for joints that had been repaired previously using internal bands and polyethylene seals. The chemical grouting repair was designed to minimize the loss of chemical grout into the surrounding stone beds. The previously-installed internal seals and bands were left in place and encapsulated in the joint sealant.
CJGeo’s large diameter pipe repair crew installed chemical grout to seal the leaking joints. Immediately after the sealing was performed, the structures were tested by the municipality. Neither structure leaked any water after CJGeo sealed the joints.
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| Virginia to Maine | Everywhere Else |
| Kirk Roberts | Martha Moore |
| d: 804-396-4845 | d: 804-404-2683 |
