Corniche Hotel
The 35-storey building has been designed by Singapore’s Surbana Consultant Pte Ltd to reflect Abu Dhabi’s maritime heritage. The foundation required deep excavation, for which monitoring instruments were important.
Encardio-rite’s sister concern, Encardio Rite Geosystems LLC in the UAE, was awarded an I&M sub-contract for the monitoring works. The scope of monitoring works included
- Supply, installation, and monitoring of geotechnical instruments
- Weekly and monthly monitoring report submissions.
A good number of monitoring instruments were used to protect adjacent structures as well as ground movements due to deep excavation works. To avoid any ground movement and deflection of the wall, three layers of strutting scheme was designed.
The instruments involved in monitoring works included
- Inclinometers were used to monitor lateral movement in the ground and in the diaphragm wall
- Compression load cells were used at around 2.5 m from the waler beam on the pipe strut to monitor the load on the struts
- Spot weldable strain gages were used on all the three layers of struts to monitor stress
- Piezometers were used outside the diaphragm wall to monitor the groundwater pressures
- An open standpipe was used to monitor the groundwater level within the excavation area
- Tilt meters (plates with portable readout systems) were used on adjacent structures within the zone of influence to monitor any deflection caused by excavation works
- Crack gauges were used on adjacent structures within the zone of influence to monitor any existing critical cracks
- A vibration and noise recorder was used to check whether the vibration caused by the excavation equipment was within allowed limits.
| Project Details | Corniche Hotel |
|---|
| Location | Khalidiya, Abu Dhabi, UAE |
| Contractor | Soil Foundation Technology |
| Year | 2009 |