Remote Ground and Building Vibration Monitoring of a Multi-Family Residential Complex during Neighboring Construction Activities

The paper will summarize the steps taken to successfully perform vibration monitoring on behalf of the owners of a modern, concrete-frame condominium complex in Charleston, South Carolina. The complex had recently undergone major renovations and the owners were concerned that pile driving for a neighboring construction project would damage their building. Prior to the start of the project, a preconstruction survey of the exterior was performed. A solar powered, triaxial geophone was installed to continuously monitor ground vibrations during the project, which provided automatic alerts when certain thresholds were exceeded. Additionally, accelerometers were installed at several locations on the structure to continuously measure building movement and to correlate any ground vibrations resulting from the construction to actual building movement. The monitoring determined that ground vibrations during construction were not high enough to cause damage to the building. Post-project data analysis revealed that ground vibrations caused by pile driving were lower than those caused by nearby vehicular traffic and the highest building accelerations were recorded during a hurricane. No potentially damaging building movement occurred from pile driving activity despite complaints from the residents. To successfully complete the project, coordination and communication between the engineer, client, contractor, and developer were required.