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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Illinois Spillway Grouting
The Job
A spillway serving as a dam for a lake owned & maintained by a property owner association outside of Carbondale, Illinois stopped having water flowing over the spillway, requiring spillway grouting. The property owners determined that the lake was draining through voids under the spillway slab. This made them concerned about destabilization of the spillway, which was the sole access for six homes.
The Challenge
The flow velocity was rather high, and immediately on the other side of the spillway was a 30′ cliff. The water was designed to spill over as a waterfall. Given the extraordinary difficulty of retrieving any material washed over the waterfall, the grout had to have an exceptionally fast set. It also needed to provide adequate bearing capacity for the roadway slabs.
The Solution
CJGeo proposed grouting below the spillway with CJGrout 40NHL. CJGrout 40NHL is usually used for differential settlement correction. CJGrout 40NHL performs well for differential settlement correction because it reacts very quickly. It’s used for medium duty lifting, such as highway pavement, so it would provide more than enough bearing capacity.
The owners were very excited that it would be significantly less expensive to grout the existing spillway than to have someone local install a portadam and replace the entire structure. CJGeo mobilized a single polyurethane grouting crew to the site. They stopped the leaks and kicked all the water flow over the spillway in a single day.
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I-64 Soundwall Backfill
The Job
VDOT’s I-64 widening project is a multi-phase widening of Interstate 64 between Richmond & Newport News. This soundwall backfill work occurred as part of Segment 2, near the Queen’s Creek bridge.
The Challenge
Approximately 150LF of a combination sound & retaining wall needed to retain more than 10′ of backfill. In order to keep the drilled foundation size consistent along the alignment, the backfill material needed to be significantly lighter than the soil backfill used in other segments, where there was minimal retained depth.
The material needed to be freely-draining and less than 40lb/cuft. To ensure proper drainage, the lightweight fill material couldn’t impact the function of the combination drain waterproofing system applied to the wall.
The Solution
CJGeo proposed backfilling the affected wall segments with 30lb/cuft CJFill-UL. Used extensively by VDOT for backfilling the retained zones of MSE walls, CJFill-UL provides significantly better bearing capacity than soils or aggregates, and once cured does not apply lateral loads to the structures it is placed against.
During installation, lateral pressure from the cellular concrete is simply the hydraulic head. Hydraulic head is calculated by multiplying the pour thickness, in this case 5′, by the wet cast density, here 30lb/cuft, so 150PSF. Because CJFill-Ultra Lightweight cellular concrete does not contain any aggregate, there is no internal friction to contribute towards lowering pressures.
CJGeo placed approximately 200CY of CJFill-UL for the soundwall backfill the wall in two pours, each approximately 5′ thick. The contractor was able to place the pavement base on top of the material the following day.
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Chicago polyurethane grouting
The Job
This Chicago polyurethane grouting project is located at BNSF’s Willow Springs Intermodal yard, a critical facility in United States’ freight rail network. The facility is colocated with a large UPS trucking operation. BNSF has very tight time lines for transferring containers from inbound trains to UPS. There are dozens of crossings within the facility, which is primarily concrete pavement.
The Challenge
80 StarTrack modular grade crossing panels across 10 different crossings in the facility experienced settlement. The settlement was affecting the safe operation of yard trucks, causing delays in container transfer times.
Because of the 24/7/365 operation, and very tight performance times, there was no tolerance for downtime.
The Solution
CJGeo proposed grouting the affected panels with CJGrout-48NHL. 48NHL is best for differential settlement correction in high load applications, such as heavy haul rail. It cures within a few minutes, which allows immediate resumption of rail traffic and truck traffic.
CJGeo mobilized a polyurethane grouting crew with extensive modular grade crossing repair experience and grouted the 10 crossings over a period of five days onsite. This Chicago polyurethane grouting project did not affect rail traffic, yard truck operations, or performance metrics.
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8′ CMP Joint Grouting
The Job
A spec warehouse was planned for a vacant piece of land which had 1700LF of 8′ CMP running through it. The pipe was 10 years old. Because the site was vacant, there was no maintenance. Nearly every joint showed signs of soil infiltration, and there were massive sinkholes along the entire alignment. Given the depth, size, and short work window, the contractor sought out a CMP joint grouting repair alternative to replacement.
The Challenge
To avoid replacing the entire run of pipe, the joints had to be sealed. There were 80 pipe joints and 12 pipe to structure joints to seal. The pipe crossed under a roadway, and then crossed the site at an angle. The downstream end of the pipe transitioned to new 96″ RCP.
The Solution
In preparation for the repair, CJGeo had to educate the town, contractor, owner & consulting engineers that polyurethane grouting is an effective CMP repair method.
CJGeo mobilized a polyurethane grouting crew to the the site. Over the course of a week onsite, the crew performed all of the CMP joint grouting.
CJGeo used CJGrout 20SDB geotechnical polyurethane. 20SDB is a high mobility geotechnical polyurethane, so seeks out and fills even the smallest of voids outside of pipes. Because it’s highly mobile, it doesn’t deflect or damage the CMP that needs repair.
The manholes also had significant defects. Made of non-parged sewer brick, they leaked extensively. To address the widespread infiltration through the structures, CJGeo sprayed the interior of each structure with CJGrout 60FDC. 60FDC is a hybrid polyurethane/polyurea spray coating. For durability, the 60FDC was coated with polyurea. The 20SDB, 60SDB & polyurea coating were all installed using the same equipment, significantly reducing costs.
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Veranda St Bridge Infill
The Job
This bridge infill work was part of Maine DOT’s Veranda Street Bridge Replacement Project, in Portland, Maine. Using rapid bridge replacement, the project took a three span bridge and converted it to a single span bridge.
The Challenge
To manage settlement due to up to 80′ of underlying WOH material, lightweight fill was needed to infill two spans, and backfill the new abutments. The absolute lowest unit weight possible requirement led to a hybrid cellular concrete/EPS fill design. The bulk of the infill is EPS blocks. However, due to the irregular surfaces, piers, etc., and the need for a lightweight load distribution slab, cellular concrete was integral to the design.
The Solution
Over two mobilizations for the bridge infill, through snow and freezing temperatures, CJGeo placed 3200CY of 25lb/cuft CJFill-Ultra Lightweight cellular concrete for abutment backfilling and existing pier infills. Then, CJGeo placed 778CY of 30lb/cuft CJFill-Ultra Lighweight as a topping slab over the EPS fill masses.
To ensure high quality material and minimize weather-related risks, CJGeo used onsite batching to generate the material. A mobile batch plant custom built for generating cellular concrete mixes water and dry bulk cement onsite. The cement paste and foam blend continuously to generate a completely homogenous material. With a slump of around 11.5 inches, both densities of CJFill-Ultra Lightweight cellular concrete were able to flow around all of the existing structures and provide a void-free fill.
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Atlanta cellular concrete
The Job
This Atlanta cellular concrete installation is part of Atlanta Watershed Management’s Niles Avenue Sewer Improvements project. The project took approximately 2500LF of microtunneling to install a new 18″ sewer main.
The Challenge
A 72″ microtunnel was chosen, which required approximately 1200CY of annular space grouting. Operations were challenged by the pandemic hitting in the middle of the project.
The Solution
CJGeo proposed 30lb/cuft CJFill-UL cellular grout for the annular space grout. This allowed the contractor to avoid mechanical buoyancy control during grouting operations during single lift grouting. Buoyancy control of the carrier was one of the driving factors for using CJFill-Ultra Lightweight for this Atlanta cellular concrete project. Because the tunnels had a good amount of slope on them, grouting in multiple stages would have been impractical. Flowable fill would have floated the carrier pipe, even if it was full of water.
Over two mobilizations, CJGeo generated the cellular grout onsite and placed it via shafts which were up to 40 feet deep. CJGeo chose wet batch generation due to the project volumes.
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New Jersey Grade Crossing Stabilization
The Job
This grade crossing stabilization project is located in Edison, New Jersey. A precast modular grade crossing (Oldcastle StarTrack) crossing developed significant pavement deterioration. NJDOT directed the railroad to stabilize and lift the panels and then patch the adjacent asphalt.
The Challenge
The grade crossing sees up to 8 trains per day (heavy industrial service), and crosses a four lane arterial highway. So, there wasn’t any allowable downtime. Because of this, traditional cementitious grout was not a viable option. Cementitious grouts generally need hours to reach strength, so can significantly disrupt train schedules, and require long lane closures for vehicles.
The Solution
CJGeo proposed grouting the panels using CJGrout 60NHL. 60NHL is a geotechnical polyurethane grout specifically formulated for heavy applications such as rail and aircraft loads. A CJGeo polyurethane grouting crew mobilized to the site and in fewer than 2 hours onsite restored the affected panels. Another name for this process is concrete raising.
This grade crossing stabilization project did not require ground improvement grouting. The cause of the settlement was the bedding fines washing out, so only shallow grouting was necessary.
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66″ Water Main Abandonment
The Job
This 66″ water main abandonment is part of the The Purple Line’s construction. The Purple Line is a light rail line project in suburban Maryland. It will increase connectivity within Maryland’s suburbs of Washington, DC. The project involves extensive utility relocation to facilitate installation of large embankments and the extensive infrastructure required for a double track rail corridor dropped into the middle of an already exceptionally congested/dense corridor.
The Challenge
As part of the project, a large MSE wall was built over approximately 3000LF of 66″ PCCP water main. To avoid any future maintenance problems under the rail alignment, a new line was put in adjacent to the embankment. The old line had to be completely full of grout.
Due to construction sequencing, the embankment installation happened before the water line relocation.
The Solution
CJGeo worked with the utility relocation contractor to design a grout mix and grouting program that provided sufficient bearing capacity to eliminate concerns about future stability. The ultimate design for the mix was a 100psi CJFill-Ultra Lightweight cellular grout. Because the embankment was already in place, the entire 3000LF stretch was accessible from just two access points.
CJGeo used a 200CY/hour dry mix batch plant onsite to generate and pump the cellular concrete up to 1500LF to place the material. This 66″ water main abandonment took four days to complete, and didn’t disrupt any of the adjacent construction activities.
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Garden State Parkway grouting
The Job
This Garden State Parkway grouting project is located near Middletown, New Jersey. As part of ongoing large diameter culvert rehabilitations and replacements, four new bored stormwater crossings and the original culvert they replaced needed to be grouted. The tunnels ranged from 120″ down to 74″, for a total of 312CY, and the abandonment required 405CY.
The Challenge
Grout needed to meet the minimum strength requirements of the owner, and ideally needed to be light enough to facilitate single lift annular space grouting.
The Solution
CJGeo’s preconstruction team worked with the general contractor to design a grouting program which facilitated single lift abandonment of the original culvert, and single lift grouting of the four various annular space runs. CJGeo utilized onsite dry batching to generate 30lb/cuft CJFill Ultra Lightweight cellular concrete.
CJFill is a type of Low Density Controlled Low Strength Material, or LD-CLSM. The “low density” comes from using preformed foam, in this case Aerlite-iX, as a substitute for aggregate. This significantly reduces the unit weight, which exponentially increases pumpability. In this case, all 405 cubic yards of abandonment grout were placeable at once.
Because CJFill LD-CLSM is significantly lighter than water, each annular space grouting run was doable in a single lift. Filling each carrier pipe partially with water was all it took to facilitate this.
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