U.S. Department of Transportation
Federal Highway Administration
1200 New Jersey Avenue, SE
Washington, DC 20590
202-366-4000
Federal Highway Administration Research and Technology
Coordinating, Developing, and Delivering Highway Transportation Innovations
| Project Information | ||
| Project ID: | FHWA-PROJ-13-0109 | |
| Project Name: | Foundation Characterization Program (FCP) | |
| Project Status: | Active | |
| Start Date: | July 22, 2014 | |
| End Date: | February 15, 2019 | |
| Contact Information | ||
| Last Name: | Jalinoos | |
| First Name: | Frank | |
| Telephone: | 202-493-3082 | |
| E-mail: | frank.jalinoos@dot.gov | |
| Office: | Office of Infrastructure Research and Development | |
| Team: | Hazard Mitigation Team [HRDI-50] | |
| Program: | Infrastructure Earmark | |
| Project detail | ||
| Roadmap/Focus area(s): | Infrastructure Research and Technology Strategic Plan and Roadmap | |
| Project Description: | The characterization of bridge foundations is complex. Bridges can be supported by shallow or deep foundations of varying footing geometries and materials. Footings can be square, circular, or rectangular. Foundations can be pedestal masonry stone footings or massive cofferdam footings. Piles can be present with or without pile caps and may be battered or vertical. Piles can be made of concrete (round, square, cylinder, or octagonal), steel (H-piles or round pipe sections), or timber. Deep foundations can be precast concrete piles, drilled shafts, or auger-cast concrete piles. The top of footings or pile caps can be buried underneath riprap, backfill mud, or channel soils. Additionally, design or as-built drawings of foundations are sometimes not available and technologies for determining foundation condition are expensive and sometimes unreliable. The goal of the Federal Highway Administration (FHWA) is to identify methods to quantify and clarify these unknowns. The Foundation Characterization Program (FCP) attempts to determine one or more of the following: Foundation type (shallow versus deep, or a combination).Elevation of the base of the foundation (e.g. pile tip elevation).Foundation geometry (width, length, and depth), which includes checking the accuracy of as-built plans.Material type (foundation materials, including concrete, masonry, stone, steel, or timber).Integrity (foundation condition, such as corroded steel, rotted wood, or cracked or defective concrete).Foundation load-bearing capacity.Pile distribution Target avoidance for foundation rehabilitation or underpinning.Remaining service life of the foundation.Subsurface characterization and imaging of soil and rock. | |
| Goals: |
The objective of the Federal Highway Administrations (FHWAs) Foundation Characterization Program (FCP) is to develop and evaluate new and existing technologies and methodologies for characterizing existing bridge foundations for the determination of unknown geometry, material properties, integrity, and load-carrying capacity. The emphasis is on developing guidance and best practices for foundation reuse. Many foundation characterization decisions will likely be made in the framework of life-cycle cost and risk-management analysis.
|
|
| Background Information: | Bridge owners face the potential problem of not being able to characterize the foundations of bridges over dry land and waterways. This information is critical in their decisionmaking process for determining whether they can rely on the existing foundations to continue to carry increasingly heavier loads; and/or to withstand geotechnical and hydraulic hazards for an additional 25, 50, 75, or 100 years of service as they consider a major bridge rehabilitation, replacement, reuse, or widening of a bridge. In 2013, the Federal Highway Administration (FHWA) initiated the development of a multi-year strategic research program to address the unknown foundation problem. The unknown foundation has been associated with the population of existing bridges over waterways that cannot be evaluated against the hydraulic vulnerability related to scour due to missing bridge plans. However, there are other engineering risks associated with unknown foundations besides scour. As such, it was decided to broaden the scope of the research program from unknown foundation to foundation characterization to include bridge foundations over land as well as waterways and incorporate geo-hydraulic hazard issues, changes in service loads, and foundation reuse. | |
| Field Test: | Field tests at actual bridge field sites. | |
| Product Type: | Article Conference displays Draft standard, specifications, or guidelines Hardware Promotional materials Research report Software Techbrief Technical report Training materials White paper | |
| Test Methodology: | In order to initiate the research program, a multidisciplinary task force was created by Federal Highway Administration (FHWA) and met on January 16, 2013 during the Transportation Research Boards (TRB) 92nd Annual Meeting. The task force comprised fourteen members from FHWA and various State departments of transportation (DOT). The members were selected based on their recognized expertise in the areas of unknown foundation and foundation-assessment issues. During this meeting, members of the task force brainstormed on steps needed to move forward with a multiyear strategic research plan for unknown foundations. The consensus of the task force and FHWA management was to broaden the scope of the research program from unknown foundation to foundation characterization to include bridge foundations over land as well as waterways and incorporate multihazard issues, changes in service loads, and foundation reuse. A workshop was held in Arlington, VA from April 30 to May 1, 2013 to solicit key stakeholders input and was summarized in the Characterization of Bridge Foundations Workshop Report (FHWA-HRT-13-101). The workshop initially discussed the issue of unknown foundation as it relates to hydraulic vulnerability for bridge scour. To determine the susceptibility of a bridge to scour, information on the foundation type and depth is needed. The participants next discussed the impact of multiple hazards on unknown foundations including other extreme events (seismic, post-event inspection, ship impact, etc.) as well as the issue of load testing of bridges with the unknown foundations. Finally, participants focused on the foundation reuse issue, which impacts all bridge foundations. The workshop provided a platform to discuss pertinent issues relating to foundation characterization with key players, both at the State and Federal levels. In support of the FHWA workshop recommendations, a workshop and a separate session on the reuse of bridge foundations were held at the 2014 TRB 93rd Annual Meeting. The result of the discussions at the TRB 2014 meeting was recently published in Foundation Characterization Program (FCP): TechBrief #1Workshop Report on the Reuse of Bridge Foundations (FHWA-HRT-14-072). The workshop presentations and panel discussions highlighted different aspects of the reuse of bridge foundations. Workshop presenters discussed project case histories involving the reuse of existing bridge foundations. Many workshop participants believed that is important to develop guidelines on standard of practice for foundation condition evaluation and for mitigating the risks involved. For the 2015 TRB Annual Meeting, two additional sessions on foundation reuse are planned. This activity has been cosponsored by five main TRB geotechnical committees. | |
| Expected Benefits: | The expected benefit of this research program will be improved characterization of existing bridge foundations through evaluation and development of technologies and guidance documents. This will provide bridge owners with more accurate data when assessing condition, load capacity, and making decisions to improve bridge safety and reliability. | |
| Deliverables: | Name: The research outcome shall be disseminated through:
Development of guidance and synthesis documents.
Federal Highway Administration (FHWA) publications such as TechBriefs, TechNotes, and research reports.
Journal articles.
Web-based documents.
Specialized system prototypes and software. Product Type(s): Research report, Techbrief, Draft standard, specifications, or guidelines, Promotional materials, Software, Training materials, Hardware, Technical report, Article, White paper, Conference displays Description: The outreach program for Foundation Characterization Program (FCP) shall consists:Create and maintain a project Web site.Outreach to communicate research findings at workshops, panel discussions, conferences.Organize training and webinars performed in cooperation with Federal Highway Administration (FHWA) headquarters, resource center, and field offices. | |
| Project Findings: | The program will be executed through 5 main tasks and 23subtasks: Defining the Foundation Performance IssuesThe main issues that requires foundation characterization include:Formation of an Expert Task Group.Perform extensive literature review.Provide stakeholder outreach to refine issues and to research data gaps and needs.Conduct special projects to support this task as defined by Federal Highway Administration (FHWA). Analytical and Developmental Research ProgramThe Analytical and Development Research program includes the following subtasks:Technology Evaluation— Evaluation of new or existing methodologies, including:Ground imaging and characterizations (such as geophysical methods).Foundation testing and evaluation (such as destructive, nondestructive, and wireline logging).Geotechnical site investigation.Advanced methodologies from other fields.Technology Development — Development of system prototypes for field testing and instrumentations.Load Testing— Investigation of new ideas for static and dynamic load testing of existing bridge foundations, including rapid load testing methodologies.Numerical Modeling/Analysis (Two-dimensional (2D) and three-dimensional (3D))— Development of numerical simulations to model complex soil-structure interaction and to calibrate field test results.Risk-based Analysis and Statistical Methods Experimental ProgramA three-tiered field testing program will be conducted for the evaluation of technology:Inservice Bridges— Use of a selective group of in-service bridges mainly for the determination of foundation type, geometry, material, load, and integrity.Decommissioned Bridges— Use of decommissioned bridges mainly for the development of new load testing methodologies for existing bridge foundations.Small Testbed with Engineered Defects — Used mainly for the validation of technology under controlled conditions. Deliverables — Disseminate the Research FindingsDevelop guidance and synthesis documents.Federal Highway Administration publications, such as TechBriefs, TechNotes, and research reports.Journal articles.Web-based documents. Outreach ProgramCreate and maintain a project Web site.Outreach to communicate research findings at workshops, panel discussions, conferences, etc.Organize training and webinars in cooperation with FHWA headquarters, resource center, and field offices. | |
| FHWA Topics: | Roads and Bridges--Asset Management | |
| TRT Terms: | Infrastructure Research Pavements Foundations Bridges Prefabricated bridges Bridge construction |
|
| FHWA Disciplines: | Geotechnical Hydraulics Structures |
|
| Subject Areas: | Bridges and other structures Construction Design Geotechnology Hydraulics and Hydrology Research |
|
 |
||
