Engineering Measurements for Port Allen Lock

Port Allen Lock is a reinforced concrete U-frame structure founded on relatively compressible soils without the use of piles. A comprehensive program of instrumentation was developed to obtain engineering data for use in design of similar type structures and to verify certain assumptions and procedures used to design Port Allen Lock. Instrumentation consisted of pressure cells and piezometers along the walls and beneath the base of the structure to determine the lateral earth pressures and foundation pressures beneath the structure, and settlement plates and wall deflection pipes to measure movements of the structure. Data were obtained during construction and operation of the lock to provide information on the behavior of the structure under a variety of loading conditions. The foundation design is summarized and the observed and computed performance of the lock are compared.