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 Geotechnical Aspects of Underground Construction in Soft Ground, Kastner Emeriault, Dias, Gui/loux (eds)
© 2002 Spécinque, Lyon. ISBN 2-9510416-3-2

The use of piling and propping for the protection of buildings beside
deep excavations: case studies from Taipei, Taiwan
Bin- Chen, Benson Hsiung
FaberMaunsell Ltd, United Kingdom (former University of Bristol)
David F. T. Nash
University of Bristol, United Kingdom
Chun- Hung Chen
Department of Rapid Transit Systems, Taipei Municipal Government, Taiwan
Richard, N. H. Hwang
Moh and Associates Inc., Taipei, Taiwan

ABSTRACT: Due to the high population density in metropolitan area in Taipei, deep excavations are
frequently used for both public infrastructure and private sector construction. Such excavations often result in
large settlement -of nearby buildings which naturally concerns their residents. The ground conditions in Taipei
are generally lightly over consolidated Clays and silts with a high water table and several measures are
commonly adopted to reduce the settlement of adjacent buildings beside excavations. Amongst these, the
installation of temporary props to the facades of buildings beside excavations is not an unusual sight.
Sometimes an additional row of piles is installed between the perimeter wall and the adjacent building. In this
paper, the records of settlement for several buildings beside excavations in Taipei is presented, and the
effectiveness of protective propping and piling is assessed.

1 INTRODUCTION
Strengthen snucture
Due to the high population density in metropolitan "
area in Taipei, deep excavations are frequently
used for both public infrastructure and private
sector construction._ Of course, buildings are often Bulldlng
located very close to such excavations and in the
soft ground prevalent in Taipei, damage to
l;:
£11211-11ZT1TT€ :Stiff
E-I-I-I-I-I-I-I-E
Ppopping

. wall
I T 1 I T T I 1 i II| ­ |
adjacent structures is not unknown. Moh and Chin a-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-: V '
( 1 993) reviewed current experience in Taipei and :;:.:.:.:.:.:.:.:§
described various measures that might be
considered to reduce building movements,
including propping, underpinning, compaction Excavatlon

I` II
grouting, cut-off-piling and building strengthening
measures, as shown in Figure 1. Amongst these,
propping and cut-off-piling are commonly utilised I

in Taipei. This paper contains brief descriptions of I

two excavations on the Nankang Line of phase 1

I
I

of the Taipei Rapid Transit System (TRTS) where

Compaction
there was props and piling were installed to protect STOUUUS Cut-off wall
adjacent structures. The effectiveness of these
measures is evaluated.
Underpinnrng

Hard stratum

Figure 1. Concept of building protection (Moh and Chin,

1993)
2 THE SITE

Yung- Tsung (BL14) -station on Nankang Line of

TRTS is located on Chung- Hsiao East Road in N _ .1.
Taipei City, near Hsinyi project township. A plan BL14
and crosssection of the excavation at BL14 station ( station
are shown' in Figures 2 and 3. For the main
station, diaphragm walls 1.2m thick, 38m deep
were installed to retain the 16.7m deep excavation.
Beside one -end of the station, a 21.1m deep
excavation was dug for an exit to the underground
‘_SB141
station (JDB-Exit A) prior to construction of the
multi-storey Joint Development Building. A cross
section is shown in Figure 4. JDB-Exit A was SB36 _*
constructed bottom-up but BL14 station was built SB37 ._‘
top-down with its central concourse level slab ' SB137
constructed after installation of the bottom slab. C1043 SB38 _‘
The major soil strata here are the Sung-Shan SB123/TIl20
Formation consisting of very thick lightly over­
consolidated clay and silt which overlie gravel at B122/TI|1l4
35m depth (see Figure 2_'and 4). The; undrained
shear strength at the base of the final excavation
was generally 50 to 70 kPa, and the angle of shear
resistance measured in consolidated undrained SB106- jDB_ 4 l*
' SB110 Exit A
triaxial tests was 30°- 34°. Below the gravel layer
there is a layer of weak sandstone. ' 20m

Figure 3. The locations as well as instruments of

Adjacent buildings BL14 station and IDB- Exit A sites
ropping Bottom of . _
E':':'E
-_-_-g V (rn,
==== * bgl) auger
excavation _ f 0 DePth
E-L-:-I excavation Depth ‘mcmecgameter

f
0 concrete piles BOUOHI
H _
Low 116.7111 10 .......
"f,»‘£»'§,-»"
plasticity .._._ , Low %
J-.
5,/5, 3/51. -0
(ni, bgl)

Clal’ 'ii' "1" ` 1* " __ 20 Plasticity if W; *lo

claY , 'I .I_ if
Sandy silt " 30 E 'vi gg, ‘_ - .,4m ,ly _Zo ‘v

Gravel.)grouted
3m deepslab
S andy -*J*-
._ 40 T
- __3O silt

gsicwne
1.2m50 Gravel
thick, Cross
38m deep panels
` 10111 in 40
iH¥¢fVHl _
diaphragm wall Weak
sandstone _50
Figure 2. Cross section through the excavation 1»2IH ll'liCk, 44-5m
for BL14 station deep diaphragm wall
Figure 4. Cross section through the excavation
for IDB- Exit A
3 THE USE OF PILING AND PROPPING FOR measured 20mm at the start of main excavation. to
DEEP EXCAVATIONS IN TAIPEI 30mm at the completion of the excavation, as
shown in Figure 6. (The slight jump in the
Some buildings supported on shallow foundations readings is probably associated with a change of
were within .3m from the excavation at BL14 monitoring team). Lateral movement of the
station and JDB-Exit A (Moh and Associates Inc., diaphragm wall here reached a maximum of about
1998 and 2000a). Here steel props were used to 30mm.
provide additional support. The installation of all In contrast, the settlements of buildings on the
props was carried out after the completion of the opposite (south) side of the -excavation were much
lst stage shallow excavation. Figure 5 shows the larger, with the maximum building settlements
props placed to support a 4-floor house, C1043, increasing from around 20-25mm before the main
beside JDB-Exit A, 'which was already tilting excavation to 80-110mm at the end of the
severely before the start of any construction. This excavation, as presented in Figure 7. These
building was a _,reinforced concrete framed buildings were founded on shallow strip
structure founded on shallow pad foundations. The foundations and propping was installed to support
props bore onto the top of the diaphragm wall and their facades. Similarly the settlement of some un­
were pre-stressed in an attempt to minimize propped buildings on raft foundations near the
movement. Additionally, in a further attempt to JDB-Exit A site increased from 20-35mm after
limit the damage 'of building CIO43, a series of diaphragm wall installation to 60-90mm by the end
contiguous piles was' installed between the of the excavation (see Figure 8). The most likely
diaphragm wall and this house. reason that building settlements were much larger
on the south side and near the west end of the site
is that a basement was being excavated for a 12­
floor building near southwest corner of BL14
station atalmost the same time as the excavation
for the station.

_.Op
§ I Q
Q -40 _
5 _ SB36
3
all _- A SB38
\

lg: _ 60 _ E1 SB37
A site ‘
Figure 5. Propping of building C1043 at IDB- Exit

f_§ _ Start of
4 OBSERVATIONS

The building response to excavation-induced __ ,-|'EgIII

,Q '30 ' excavation

-100
E End of excavation
settlement depends on the pattern of ground
movement as well as the stiffness of the structure.
Boscardin and Cording (1989) and others showed
whereas building tilt is relatively innocuous,
_ 3V VI
-120
horizontal strains and distortion may lead to 24/08/92 14/08/94 03/08/96 24/07/98
damage of the structure. The building settlements M easured date
resulting from the excavation were observed at
BL14 station and IDB- Exit A sites. The locations
of the settlement monitoring points mounted on Figure 6. Observed settlement of buildings on
buildings (denoted SB here) are given in Figure 3. the north side of the BL14 station (without
Adjacent to the north side of BL14 station, the Pf0PPiU8)
buildings were supported by raft foundations
beneath a single basement. No propping was used.
The building settlements increased from a
 Figure 9 presents the settlements observed at
building C1043, which is close to the excavation
for JDB-Exit A. Despite installation of the props
0 (see Figure 5) building C1043 continued to settle,
and movement reached 50-70mm by the end of the

A ‘1.|Q SB137
9 " 'Completion of
excavation. Examination of Figures 8 and 9 shows

E. 5 _
_20 Q rgpropping I
I
that there is only a limited difference between the
settlement observed at C1043 and that observed at
E40 j = SB141 other un-propped buildings beside JDB-Exit A_
Observations of building tilt were also made at
§3a' -60
_ ‘u» ~ _ C1043 (see Figure 10). This shows that building

.g
my - -
I : :
I End of excavation
*Ta* -30 ~ 011 If '
C1043 had rotated by 3><10`3 (ie 1 in 300) by the
end of monitoring.
Figure 11 shows the building settlements
_ ;-Ig“I {I
‘Q i excavation observed at a nearby underground station, BL12,

_ I r |
constructed in similar ground conditions to those at
-100
-120 _ `
BL14, and to a similar depth and width. At this site
there were similar adjacent foundations but
I{I propping was not utilised. Figure 11 shows that
the maximum building settlement of some close
24/08/92 14/08/94 03/08/9b u 24/0'//98 structures reached 120mm, which is approximately
Measured date the same as that observed at BL14. Moh and
Associates Inc. (1995) reported the maximum tilt
of structures surrounding BL12 station was
Figure 17. Observed settlement of buildings on the generally 2><1O'3 to 4><10`3.
south side of the BL14 station (with propping) The above evidence from JDB-Exit A and BL14
and BL12 stations, strongly suggests that this type
of structural propping is not able to restrict the
5 DISCUSSION movement and rotation of buildings adjacent to a
deep excavation.
As illustrated above, propping and protective The observations in Taipei contrast with
behaviour observed during the construction ofa
piling were utilised at the BL14 station and JDB­
new underground station beneath the Circle and
Exit A sites. The effectiveness of these protection District lines at Westminster station in London
measures is assessed in the following sections.
(Stone and Crawley, 1999), and construction of a
new tunnel beneath a 33m wide, 270m long, 3­
5.1 The use of propping to support buildings level underground shopping mall and an existing
adjacent to excavations subway in Nagoya City, Japan (Iwasaki et al.,
Moh and Associates Inc. (1998) reported that at 1994). At Westminster full protective
underpinning was carried out to take the load of
BL14 station, up to 40mm building settlement had existing station structure to the deeper harder soil
occurred during wall installation and the lst stage
shallow excavation. In attempt to prevent the strata before the start of excavation. The structural
load was carried via a transfer slab into a number
development of excessive movements at later of 55m deep piles of up to 3m diameter. While
stages, propping was carried out to support the some significant movements occurred during
nearby buildings. Despite these measures, the installation of the piles which necessitated close
observations of the settlement points SB137 and
SB141 at the south end of the BL14 station show control of the track level, the subsequent
that the buildings continued to settle markedly movements of the station during excavation
after the installation of the propping, and reached
beneath it were small. At Nagoya City the
shopping mall and subway were first underpinned
about 80-1l0rnm by the end of the excavation, as
using 15m long lm diameter cast-in-place concrete
shown in Figure 7. Clearly, the propping here was
piles installed into a layer of stiff clay before the
insufficient to prevent significant building tunnel was excavated and constructed between
movement. Limited numbers of steel props were them. Here the maximum settlements of the
installedfrom the top of the wall to the buildings structures reach 4mm at the end of the excavation.
nearby to support their facades, and some of the
structural loads were transferred to the diaphragm
At both sites in London and Nagoya City,
wall. underpinning piles were installed into the stiffer
soil strata to transfer the load of the upper structure
effectively. This contrasts with the facade
propping at BL14 station and IDB-Exit A sites since their toes were above the hard soil strata at
where probably only part of the facade load was the site of JDB~Exit A.
carried down thediaphragm wall. Certainly such At the site of the Mingshen water tank, piling
propping measures can be utilised to prevent was installed along one side of the excavation in
building' collapse. However unless the entire load an attempt to protect of adjacent buildings. A row
of the adjacent buildings is completely transferred of 45cm diameter jet-grouted piles was installed
to stiffer ground at depth, structural propping of from to21m below ground level before the start of
the fagade does not appear to eliminate large the excavation. However,_ these jet grouted piles
building movements and distortions resulting from also floated in the soft clay, and field monitoring
the ground displacement induced by the showed they were not able to reduce the lateral
excavation. deflections significantly. In a further attempt to
reduce movements a second row of 60cm diameter
deep mixing cement piles were installed to 14m
0p_/ bgl was installed between the previous jet-grout
~ Q SBl06 piles and the buildings as the main excavation
progressed. However, even these piles did not
_20 f as ci SB107 reduce the movements and some building
j ' A SB108 settlements reached 270mm by the end of
A s _ ` y- ` up -x_SB109 construction.

E 1 '
3 '40 f ` x SB110
:D ' I
§ -so _
0
\.

5_ -20 _
` Cl SB123 A O SB 122

E; _SO _Qexcavation
Stan of

-100_~_ EI| E|
- Iof excavation
- E End
/E -40 ­
E’ _
-120 7 *
24/07/98 19/07/99 13/07/00 08/07/01
E _-601i-> °
Q
M easured date
§
5 Wal ind
0

sinstallation
propping
'E
D3 -so ­
Figure 8. Observed settlement of buildings
beside JDB- Exit A =_(without propping)
i End of excavation
-100 ' Start of E
5.2 Piling for the house protection
Woo (1996) suggested that the piling installed
Q 5V 5
-120
‘ excavation {
.
between the perimeter wall of an excavation and 24/07/98 19/07/99 13/07/00 08/07/01
the adjacent buildings may be able to reduce the
Measured date
lateral pressure on the perimeter wall and thus
reduce the movements caused by the excavation.
Such piling was carried out at two different sites,
JDB Exit-.A and Mingshen Water tank (Moh and
Associates Inc., 2000b). At the site of JDB-Exit Figure 9. Settlement of house C1043 induced
A, in addition to propping building C1043, a row by the excavation at IDB- Exit A (with
of 20m deep 40cm diameter contiguous augered propping)
concrete piles was installed between the building
and the diaphragm wall (see Figure 4).
Unfortunately these additional piles were unable to
arrest the ground movement - and indeed their
installation may itself have made the problems
worse. The piles were floating in the soft clay
 settlement at these sites. This is mainly because
5.00E-03 the support system as a whole is not sufficiently
0 TI14AB stiff or extensive that building loads could be
4.00E-03 ‘ End Of transferred to stiff ground at depth. Similarly the
' U TU4CD excavation
installation of an additional bored pile wall
3.00E-03 A TUOAB f between the perimeter wall of the excavation and

3_8 I2.00E-03 S
>< T120cD {

O || `_
the adjacent buildings is not sufficiently stiff that
ground movements associated with the excavation

'B .
24° 1.00E-03 I I

'al-4
are reduced. It is also- ` clear that important
buildings require complete underpinning to isolate
an 0.00E+00 f them from movement of the underlying ground.
J-I

/ I Ii '
EE -1.00503 ~ A
-2.00503 ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

The first author was supported by a research

-3.0015-03 start of 1 scholarship from the University of Bristol. The
excavation Q
-4.00E-03 Q
1 _;'
authors are also grateful to the Department of
Rapid Transit Systems for granting permission to
1 I 1 I 1 ' |!\ 1 * \ '| : | publish the datapresented herein. The field data
24/07/98 19/07/99 13/07/00 provided by Moh and Associates Inc., Taipei,
M easured 'date
Taiwan is appreciated.

Figure 10. observed tilt of house C1043 beside REFERENCES

JDB- Exit A (with propping)
Boscardin, M. D. and Cording, E. J. (1989) Building
response to excavation-induced settlement, ASCE,

-20
Journal of Geotechnical Engineering, Volume 115, No.
1, 1-21
Iwasaki, Y., Watanabe, H., Fukuda, M., Hirata, A. and Hori,
Y. (1994), Construction control for underpinning piles
A '=`ff» End of
‘E 4 }
and their behaviour during excavation, Geotechnique 44,
E '40 excavation _ No. 4, 681- 689 _

-5
0
_ .
5,Qexcavation|
'60 Start of _ I
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Moh, Z. C. and Chin, C. T. (1993), Recent developments in
deep excavation in soft ground, Intemational conference
on geotechnical engineering and earthquake resistant

e'_' ':_
= l~'; ,._~.I
fn -80 : ` | I _ .
2 'wo OSBI29 `~ f A 9 _
technic in soft area, Shenzhen, China, 1- 14
Moh and Associates Inc. (1995), Final report for the ground
monitoring data for Lot CN256 on Nankang Line, Taipei

(In Chinese) T
MRT System, Moh and Associates Inc., Taipei, Taiwan

_120AlSB137
SB148 I11E E Moh and Associates Inc. (1998), Final report for the ground

-140 ' * V
04/09/90 24/08/92 14/08/94 03/08/96
monitoring data for Lot CN258 on Nankang Line, Taipei

(In Chinese) '

MRT System, Moh and Associates Inc., Taipei, Taiwan

Measured date Moh and Associates Inc. (2000a), Final Report for the
Ground Monitoring Data for Lot CN258C on Nankang
Line, Taipei MRT System, Moh and Associates Inc.,
Taipei, Taiwan (in Chinese)
Figure 11 Observed settlement of buildings at Moh and Associates Inc. (2000b) Geotechnical engineering
BL12 station (without propping) consultant report for the excavation at Mingshen Water
Tank, Moh and Associates Inc., Taipei, Taiwan (in
Chinese)
Stones, C. S. and Crawley, J _ D (1999), Westminster Station,
London- deep excavation below an operation railway:
construction the new Jubilee Line Station interchange
6 CONCLUSION hall, 12"‘ European Conference of Soil Mechanics and
Geotechnical Engineering, Geotechnical Engineering for
From these field observations at deep excavations Transportation Infrastructure, edited by Barends et al.,
in soft clay ground conditions in Taipei, it may be Amsterdam, Volume 1, 1- 6
concluded the propping of the facade of an Woo, S. M. (1996), Some aspects of deep excavation in
adjacent building off the top of a diaphragm wall Taiwan, 12"‘ Southeast Asian Geotechnical Conference,
131- 141, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia
was not effective in reducing the building