Hurricane Katrina severely damaged the Twin Span Bridges in New Orleans, Louisiana. Since these bridges are the primary evacuation route for the City of New Orleans, the design of the replacement bridges had to be done within a short time frame. The pile foundation design of the bridges was done using limited soil borings and core penetration test (CPT) soundings resulting in a large amount of pile cut-off and potential undesirable pile build-ups. The Louisiana Department of Transportation and Development (LA DOTD) was able to perform additional CPT soundings to better define the soil conditions during construction. Using these additional data, the LA DOTD geotechnical engineer produced a more reliable design and avoided potentially costly construction claims. The paper documents the problems encountered during construction and the improved pile foundation design.
Samenvatting