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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New Jersey polyurethane grouting
The Job
This New Jersey polyurethane grouting project is located in Creskill, New Jersey. As part of a full gut renovation of the library, the architect specified lifting settled areas of the floor. The floor settlement was affecting approximately 3200 square feet, with settlement up to two inches.
The Challenge
The library building is a slab on grade, with relatively light design loads. The floor is approximately four inches thick, and reinforced with welded wire mesh. The original design to correct settlement was to use mud jacking. Mud jacking works well, but is rather slow, and tends to be very messy. Mud jacking uses cement-based grout pumped under high pressure below concrete to fill voids and push the concrete back up. A downside is that the grout is quite heavy, and the additional weight it adds to already compromised soils can cause additional future settlement.
The Solution
CJGeo proposed using CJGrout 28FDL geotechnical polyurethane grout as an alternative to the specified mud jacking process. CJGeo’s value engineer proposal was based on the following benefits of polyurethane grouting over traditional cementitious grouting:
- speed – polyurethane grouting tends to be significantly faster than cementitious grouting
- cleanliness – polyurethane grouting is a very clean process, including dustless drilling, mechanical connections to the slab, and material that scrapes off with a putty knife if it leaks from below a slab
- density – traditional mud jacking grout is approximately 50 times heavier than in place CJGrout 28FDL. This reduces the likelihood of future resettlement by minimizing the additional load that grout places on the underlying soils.
The architect and structural engineer accepted CJGeo’s value engineering proposal for this New Jersey polyurethane grouting repair. A crew of three CJGeo polyurethane grouting experts completed the repair in less than a day. Because polyurethane cures within a few minutes, the general contractor was able to move on to the next steps in the project very quickly.
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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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Pregrouting for Hand Mining
The Job
This large CSO project in Alexandria, Virginia required pregrouting for hand mining. The hand mining was to install a new pipe below an existing influent tunnel, which is on piles. The hand mined tunnel was to connect two a secant pile shaft to a slurry wall pit, which are roughly 25′ apart.
The Challenge
The challenges on this project included:
- no drilling allowed without pre-probing
- 3′ thick secant pile walls
- unknown exact pile support layout of influent tunnel
- fully saturated soils
- potential debris in backfill under existing influent tunnel
The Solution
CJGeo proposed performing the permeation grouting using acrylate. Acrylate is exceptionally low viscosity, so well suited to the organic, fine-grained soils. Previous permeation grouting on the project was done with acrylamide. However, acrylamide is neurotoxic and carcinogenic, so the owner was happy to learn about acrylate, which has very similar properties, but is not neurotoxic or carcinogenic.
To avoid drilling, CJGeo developed a pushed/driven probe injection grouting installation. This approach uses 1/2″ diameter steel tubing driven to depth, and then grouted through during extraction.
The 3′ thick secant pile walls didn’t pose too much of an issue, clearance holes were drilled with hand-held percussion drills.
Drilling wasn’t allowed. The owner and design team were concerned about potentially hitting and damaging the pile foundation. Because there was the potential for debris, there would be no way to distinguish debris from a pile until it was potentially too late. By using groutable probe rods, CJGeo avoided all of this risk.
The fully saturated soils had relatively low permeability, and the site was constrained on two sides by the existing SOE structures. Performing permeation grouting when below the water table you’re limits the placement rate by the ability to displace the existing groundwater. Because of the water-tight walls on two sides of this pregrouting for hand mining application, take was slower than originally anticipated.
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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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North Carolina Compaction Grouting
The Job
This North Carolina compaction grouting project is located at a military facility in eastern North Carolina. To facilitate the renovation of an adjacent office building, the owner installed eight mobile office buildings. Before the mobile offices were put into use, they settled up to three inches. As a result, the owner had to stabilize the structures before moving any equipment and people into the structure.
The Challenge
The site comprises of sand backfill over native loose sands. The eight mobile buildings bear on masonry piers resting on plastic load distribution pads. The piers and pads are on approximately 6′ centers, spread uniformly throughout the structure. The crawlspace is too shallow to safely enter.
The Solution
CJGeo proposed using CJGrout 35NHV to perform compaction grouting below the piers to stabilize the loose soils. 35NHV is a 3.5lb/cuft rigid polyurethane injection grouting foam. It performs well for void filling and compaction grouting in wet environments.
Special polyurethane grouting rigs generate CJGrout 35NHV onsite. The rigs have hoses up to 400 feet long, which convey the material from the grouting rigs to the placement area. For this project the 35NHV was injected using sacrificial tubing. The tubing passes through holes in the floor through the crawlspace, to roughly 3′ below the pads.
One of CJGeo’s polyurethane grouting crews was onsite for three days to complete this North Carolina compaction grouting project. CJGeo used rotary lasers to monitor the floor elevation over each pier during grouting. The cutoff criteria was movement of approximately 0.25 inches. Then, a carpentry crew jacked and shimmed the beams after the grouting. Finally, a flooring crew restored the flooring afterwards.
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Coke Gas Pipe Fill
The Job
This coke gas pipe fill project is located in Middletown, Ohio, at Cleveland Cliff’s Middletown Works facility. Middletown Works determined that the coke plant would be more costly to repair than to replace, so elected to demolish the plant.
The Challenge
A demolition contractor working to dismantle parts of the onsite coking plant had to remove approximately 350LF of coke gas pipe. The work area is located in the basement of the coking plant.
Coke gas residuals will spontaneously combust when exposed to the air. However, the pipe has to be cut into roughly 3′ pieces to remove it. The pipe fill grout had to:
- completely fill the pipe
- coat the residuals to minimize air exposure
- cut easily
- add as little weight as possible to the pipe sections
The Solution
CJGeo proposed using CJGrout-20SDB to fill the pipes. 20SDB is a 2lb/cuft rigid polyurethane foam, specifically formulated to flow long distances before setting.
CJGrout 20SDB is generated onsite by special polyurethane grouting rigs. The rigs have hoses up to 400 feet long, which convey the material from the grouting rigs to the placement area. For this coke gas pipe fill project, the crew had to run hoses approximately 250 feet into the building, down multiple stair cases. The hoses are lightweight and about 2 inches in diameter, so this isn’t a problem.
One of CJGeo’s polyurethane grouting crews was onsite for two days to complete the project. First, CJGeo placed the 20SDB. Then, the demolition contractor cut the pipe with band saws every three feet. Lastly, each piece was bagged and hand carried out of the basement.
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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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