URIEL & ASOCIADOS. INGENIERÍA GEOTÉCNICA

Construction Pathology Studies

Studying and remediating construction pathologies is one of the most interesting activities in this field due to the technical challenge and to the wide range of knowledge required to make any decisions. That is why pathologies are usually classified as an activity per se.
This activity comprises the analysis of buildings or civil engineering works with several technical and constructive challenges that were not properly solved. The problems caused by the pathology itself are added to the aforementioned technical and constructive challenges.
In summarizing, once the work has been completed the solution is more complicated since it has to be compatible with the structural damage and since the infrastructure will probably have to remain functional during the remediation works. Apart from this, behind a pathology there are always several causes (a single cause would not significantly reduce the factor of safety) and sometimes a detailed cause-effect analysis is necessary to investigate the situation in order to state the liability of each party involved in the matter.
Uriel & Asociados has traditionally conducted this kind of studies due to the expertise required for the analysis. As an example, one of the first reports of the company studied the stabilization of the cracks located in Almansa’s castle. The aim of this report was to stop the cracking process (which was caused by an instability process due to the toppling of the rock strata in the hill where the castle was built) and improve the settlement behavior of the fill located under the castle walls. Slope, cut and embankment stability studies are normally considered as technical assistance even though they are sometimes connected to severe construction damage.

STUDY ON THE PATHOLOGIES OF THE ABUTMENTS OF STRUCTURE E-16 OF THE ROAD RADIAL 2.		STABILIZATION OF THE CRACKS IN ALMANSA’S CASTLE
	Geotechnical assistance to solve the pathologies associated to the settlement of a structure abutment. Jet-Grouting and micropile underpinning designed. Alluvial and detritic Tertiary materials.s

STUDY ON THE PATHOLOGIES OF THE ABUTMENTS OF STRUCTURE E-78 OF THE ROAD RADIAL 2. 2

UNDERPINNING OF REFRIGERATED WAREHOUSES, EMBANKMENT TREATMENT AND FOUNDATION OF THE NEW WAREHOUSES

One of the abutments of this structure had time increasing settlements which required an intervention. Initially, a jet grouting treatment was designed with great care to avoid the reinforcing strips of the Reinforced Earth MSE retaining wall. Before this treatment was completed, the state of the abutment required a more “aggressive” treatment. The aforementioned treatment consisted on disassembling the bridge deck and underpinning the beams with micropiles. Finally, the road surface was also reinforced. This treatment was used in both abutments.

The warehouse foundation consisted on piles driven through marine materials that had suffered settlements of up to 20 cm. With the aim of keeping a 28 m high automated warehouse operational, the solution consisted on a partial underpinning (not very usual) by means of micropiles and an improvement of the embankment by means of ground injection. On a later stage new warehouses were built and they were also founded with micropiles. The new pile caps had to be able to transfer the load to the previous pile caps and to avoid any side effects between piles and micropiles.

STUDY ON THE COLLAPSE OF THE EMBANKMENT TO ACCESS THE BRIDGE OVER ROAD A-40. HIGH SPEED RAILWAY LINE BETWEEN MADRID AND LEVANTE. SECTION: OCAÑA – VILLARRUBIA DE SANTIAGO.		STUDY ON THE PATHOLOGIES OBSERVED IN BUILDINGS OF THE “NASA KALEA” AFFECTED BY THE EXTENSION WORKS OF ONDARROA’S HARBOR
	Excessive settlements and cracks appeared at the end of the construction process due to the collapse of the embankment. The collapse was due to heavy rainfall, a non adequate drainage of the bridge deck, the discrete average quality of the materials and some compaction defects. The area affected was defined through means of Panda penetration tests. The issue was solved by constructing micropile screen walls, excavating and recompacting and reinforcing the embankment slopes.		The pathologies observed in several buildings of Nasa street, in Ondarroa, after the extension of a harbor upstream in river Artibai, were studied in this report. The buildings exhibited important movements, both horizontally and vertically due to the densification of natural sands and fills after driving a sheet pile wall. Since the movements had stopped after the sheet pile wall was driven, no improvement techniques were used on the terrain or for the foundations, but the structure of the buildings (which was made of wood) was reinforced.

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	Uriel & Asociados	Activities		Experience
	Introduction	Geotechnical Studies		Large Urban Excavations
	About us	Integrated Geotechnical Design		Complete Listing
	International	Specialized Consulting		Road and Railway Works
	Clients	Revisions for bid and execution construction projects		- Tunnels
	Work Equipments	Project supervision		- Bridges
	Contact	Project Edition		Special Buildings
		Geotechnical support		Coastal Engineering
	Courses lectured and papers published	Execution control		Hydraulic Engineering
	Courses lectured and papers published	Construction pathology studies