Steel H-Pile Design and Installation for Redevelopment of a Former Landfill Site

Development of brownfields, including former landfills, into commercial, industrial, or mixed-use properties is increasing. However, design and construction of such redevelopment projects is complex and must consider a variety of geotechnical, structural, environmental, and regulatory hurdles. This paper describes the design and construction challenges of installing deep foundations through refuse and soft clay strata to a variable bearing layer. Design challenges included developing axial capacity in soft soils and providing sufficient lateral capacity for seismic loading after settlement of soils around the piles. Construction challenges included early refusal; low blow counts at the target tip elevation; repeated misfires when driving through the soft Young Bay Mud; maintaining pile verticality through the MSW; and broken or unusable piles.