Fondations superficielles. Magnan et Droniuc (ed.

) 2003, Presses de lENPC/LCPC, Paris

ESTIMATED AND MEASURED LONG-TERM SETTLEMENTS FOR A

SHALLOW BRIDGE FOUNDATION ON LOOSE SOILS
TASSEMENTS LONG TERME ESTIMS ET MESURS POUR UNE FONDATION
SUPERFICIELLE DE PONT REPOSANT SUR DES SOLS LCHES
Ulf BERGDAHL1, Annika LINDAHL2, Gunnar WESTBERG3
1, 3
Swedish Geotechnical Institute, Linkping, Sweden
2
WSP, Malm, Sweden
ABSTRACT - The objective of this study was to develop and improve the relationship between
subsurface investigation, settlement estimation and measured long-term settlement for shallow
foundations in loose to medium dense silt and sand. The amount of settlements has been
compared with measured settlements from 50 years. The calculated settlements based on CPT
and weight sounding tests showed 20 to 50 percent less settlements than the measured.
RSUM Cette tude avait pour objectif de dvelopper et amliorer les relations entre la
reconnaissance des sols, lestimation du tassement et le tassement mesur long terme des
fondations superficielles reposant sur du sable ou du limon lche moyennement dense.
Lamplitude des tassements a t compare aux tassement observs au bout de 50 ans. Les
tassements calculs daprs les rsultats dessais CPT et WST taient infrieurs de 20 50%
aux valeurs mesures.

1. Introduction
The Swedish Geotechnical Institute (SGI) has together with the Swedish Road Administration
been studying for many years different methods for settlement calculations in cohesionless soils
for shallow foundations. A number of methods based on different investigation techniques have
been studied. In two places plate loading tests have been performed and in a number of sites
comparisons have been made with recently constructed bridges. Bergdahl et al. (1982, 1984,
1985, 1986). The aim of the present investigations has been to study the validity of some of the
calculation methods also for long term settlements in loose silt and sand, where the observed
settlements have been extensive.

2. Presentation of the bridge structure

The bridge across re river at Skarda in the northern part of Sweden is a combined steel and
reinforced concrete structure completed in 1953. Its total length is 66 m and its width is 6 m
(Figure 1). The footings are both made of reinforced concrete. The maximum design contact
pressure was set to 343 kPa. On the west side the pressure acts on a 5.88.9 m plate and on
the east side on a 6.28.9 m foundation. The bridge pavement is situated at +175.0 m above
sea level, 6.0 to 7.5 ms above the foundation level. The eastern foundation was founded at the
level +169.0 m and the western foundation at +167.5 m, both 3.1 m below the original ground
level. The water level could vary a lot depending of the inundation from LLW +168.5 m to HHW
+172.7 m. A compilation of the design loads is presented in Table 1.

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Figure 1. Structure of the bridge across re river.

Load source

Table 1. Design load compilation

East footing
West footing
Moment parallel Vertical load Moment parallel Vertical load
to the bridge
[kN]
to the bridge
[kN]
alignment [kNm]
alignment [kNm]
of
1309
1853

Casting
footing
Casting of front
wall
Installation
of
superstructure
Fill
Traffic load
Sum of loads

-19

2846

86

3291

2017

5560

2046

6005

3193
6373
11.564

9499
13738
32.952

5446
8826
16.604

10013
14252
35.414

3. Ground investigations
The original ground investigations were performed in 1950 and included manual weight
sounding test (WST) in 23 locations and piston sampling in four. These borings were performed
along the bridge alignment and along two parallel lines at each side of the bridge. The samples
were classified according to the old Swedish system (Atterberg system).
In 1996, SGI performed complementary ground investigations including auger sampling, WST
and CPT, in order to obtain new test results based on standardised investigation methods
(ISSMFE, TC16, 1989).
Due to the existing approach embankments, the new investigations were located outside the
embankment slopes, 10.5 m south of the bridge on the eastern side and 17.5 m north of the
bridge on the western side. The samples were classified according to the new Swedish
classification system (1992).

4. Geological and geotechnical conditions

The subsurface exploration in the 1950s concluded as follows: the river overbridged is
meandering in a valley, which originally was formed for a much higher water flow. The
surrounding area contains post-glacial sediments as fluvial, sand and silt. The fluvial sand was
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deposited in calm water close to a shoreline and mixed with organic matters. The meandering
process influenced the variation of the spatial distribution in the deposits. The geotechnical
statement made in 1950 concluded that: The western foundation soil profile consists of fine
sand and silt down to a depth of 9 m, where the sampling was ended. Within the fine sand, thin
layers of organic matter were found. The bottom of the profile consists of a medium dense silt.
The soil profile at the eastern foundation consists of sand from the ground surface to 6 m
depth. The sand is loose in the upper 4 m and becomes medium dense with depth.
The supplementary investigations in 1996 show the following: at the depth of the foundation at
the east side the first meter was silt and sand with minor constituents of organic matters and
beneath a 9 m thick sand layer. At the western side at the depth of the foundation there is a 2.5
m layer of silt with organic constituents and beneath that a 0.7 m layer of slightly organic sand.
Beneath that silt and silty sands with some organic constituents down to 7.5 m depth was found.
The results of the old and new ground investigations are presented in Figures 2 and 3.

Figure 2. Results of old and new ground investigations at the Eastern foundation.
It is evident from these results that the WST results are quite different in the old and new
investigations (Bergdahl, 1969). As the settlement calculation methods used for Swedish bridge
foundations today are related to standardised penetration test only, the new CPT and WST
results have been used for the settlement calculations presented below in spite of the fact that
they are situated apart from the foundations.

5. Estimation of bearing capacity and settlements

5.1 Assessment of ground parameters
The characteristics of the ground have been assessed according to Swedish Road
Administration (1994). See also Eurocode ENV 1997-3 (1999) and Table 2.
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Figure 3. Results of old and new ground investigations at the Western foundation.
Table 2. Determination of the angle of internal friction and modulus of elasticity
Relative
Cone
Weight sounding
Angle of
Modulus of
density
resistance
resistance.
internal friction, compression
qc (MPa)
(Halfturns/0.2m)
Ek (MPa)
(degrees)
(1)
(2)
Very low
0 2.5
0 15
29 33
< 10
Low
2.5 5
15 30
33 35
10 20
Medium
5 10
30 50
35 37
20 30
High
10 20
50 90
37 40
30 60
Very high
20 30
90 130
40 42
60 90
WST resistance in silty soils should be divided by a factor of 1.3. For silty soils, the angle of
internal friction should be reduced by 3.0 degrees. The settlement modulus corresponds to
expected settlements after 10 years.
The angle of internal friction has for the eastern foundation from old manual WST been
estimated to 30-35 degrees above foundation level while it was equal to 27-34 degrees
beneath the foundation level in silt. For the western foundation the angle of internal friction
beneath the foundation level was estimated to between 30 and 37 degrees in sand. The unit
weight of the sand has been set to 18 kN/m3 above groundwater and 11 kN/m3 as effective unit
weight below groundwater. The corresponding values for silt is 17 and 9 kN/m3, respectively.
As the main aim of this report has been to study the settlements, a more detailed distribution
of the modulus of compression has been used, as indicated in Figures 4 and 5.
5.2 Calculation of bearing capacity
As the bridge foundations are placed close to a slope, their stability has to be verified by slip
surface calculations. This has been done by the SLOPE/W program and the friction angles
evaluated from the old manual WST were used as those were the lowest values obtained. The
calculations indicated that the total safety factor could be as low as 1.0 for the eastern
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foundation and 1.1 for the western one. However, considering that the angle of internal friction
could be 3-5 degrees higher following recent practice for both WST and CPT. It is still believed
that the factor of safety is acceptable.

Figure 4. Compilation of compression moduli as

a function of depth beneath foundation level for
the eastern foundation.

Figure 5. Compilation of compression moduli as a

function of depth beneath foundation level for the
western foundation.

5.3 Calculation of settlements

The settlement calculations have been based on both the new WST results and the new CPT
results for the total loads according to Table 1. The stress distribution has been calculated for
two points under the two foundations according to Steinbrenner (1936). Point A located
centrically in the half foundation close to the river and point B centrically in the rear half, see
Figure 1. The settlement calculations have been made according to De Beer (1965) for the CPT
test results and according to Hooks law for the WST results. Both calculations indicate the
settlements after 10 years. The increase of settlements after 10 years has been calculated
according to Schmertmann (1978). The 10 years settlements based on characteristic values are
presented in Table 6.
Table 6. Calculated characteristic settlements after 10-years.
Method
Location A (mm)
Location B (mm)
East footing
WST
170
130
CPT
120
100
West footing
WST
90
90
CPT
90
100
The difference between new WST and CPT in Table 6 are notable for the east foundation
where the WST results gave 30 to 40 % larger settlements than the CPT test results did.
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The eastern footing is situated on a silty soil and therefore the settlements are higher due to
lower modulus of compression. The highly variable variation of the local geology is important to
consider as the later explorations are performed outside the footings. The soil characterization
differs between explorations at both footings. At the eastern side the new exploration shows
sand while the old investigation revealed silt. At the western side the new exploration shows a
soil consisting of sand and silt and the old investigations indicated sand.

6. Measured settlements
Between 1954 and 1962 yearly measurements of the settlements were performed and in 1987
and 1996 complementary measurements.
The settlement measured between July 1954 and December 1962 were between 208 and
224 mm for the eastern foundation and between 83 and 92 mm for the western foundation. The
foundations were also tilting somewhat towards the river. After 50 years these figures have
been extrapolated using the complementary measurements to between 231 and 250 mm for the
eastern foundation and between 94 and 112 mm for the western.

7. Comparisons between calculated and measured settlements

In Figures 6 and 7 the calculated and measured settlements from 1954 to 1962 are presented.
The measured settlements are marked smin and smax. A linear relationship describes the
settlements measured from 1962 and the new measurements performed in 1987 and 1996.
The settlement measurements at the east side show that the new explorations, both WST
and CPT and related settlement estimations are 20 to 50 percent less than the reality. For the
west side both new WST and CPT test gives results consistent with measured settlements.

8. Discussion and conclusion

The present investigation indicates that there could be big differences in settlements also for
rather neighbouring foundations. The investigations also indicate that the composition of the
ground in a meandering riverbed could vary considerably also in very short distances. Also the
content of organic matters varied within short distances.
The settlement calculations for the western foundation indicate that the recent practice in
settlement calculation based on both WST and CPT tests give reasonable results also for a long
time in spite of the fact that old manual WST indicated extremely loose conditions. However, on
the other hand the calculations for the eastern foundation indicated a severe underestimate of
the settlements. The reasons for these differences are probably the differences in organic
content in the ground. Partly also the low bearing capacity of the foundation may have
contributed to the extensive settlements, creep settlements.
The conclusion of this investigation may be that current practice for settlement calculations
based on CPT and WST tests can be used also for long time settlements in loose sands. In
case there is a considerable content of organic matters complementary in situ tests or
laboratory tests on undisturbed samples are recommended.

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Figure 6. Settlements of the eastern foundation as a function of time in years.

Figure 7. Settlements of the western foundation as a function of time in years.

9. References
Bergdahl U. (1969). Investigation of the Weight Sounding Test. Nordic Sounding Test Meeting,
Stockholm October 5-6, 1967, Swedish Geotechnical Institute, Reports and Preliminary
Reports No 31, (In Swedish).
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Bergdahl U., Ottosson E. (1982). Calculation of settlements on sands from field test results.
European symposium on penetration testing, 2, Amsterdam, May 1982. Proceedings. Vol. 1,
pp 229-234.
Bergdahl U., Hult G., Ottosson E. (1984). Belastningsfrsk p plattor grundlagda i friktionsjord
fr bestmning av jords deformationsegenskaper. Frsk vid SGI:s provflt - Kolbyttemon,
Linkping. Statens Geotekniska Institut, SGI, Varia; 138. Linkping. 76 p. (In Swedish).
Bergdahl U., Hult G, Ottosson E. (1985). Calculation of settlements of footings in sands.
Proceedings, 11th International conference on soil mechanics and foundation engineering, Sa
Vol. 4, pp 2167-2170.
Bergdahl U., Hult G., Ottosson E. (1986). Belastningsfrsk p plattor grundlagda i friktionsjord
fr bestmning av jords deformationsegenskaper. Frsk vid Albysjn, Fittja. Statens
Geotekniska Institut, SGI, Varia; 168. Linkping. 86 p. (In Swedish).
Bergdahl U., Hult G., Ottosson E. (1986). Spread footings in sands. Calculation of bearing
capacity and settlements. Statens Geotekniska Institut, SGI, Varia; 165. Linkping. 23 p.
Bergdahl U., Ottosson E., Malmborg B.S. (1993). Plattgrundlggning. Statens geotekniska
institut (Svensk Byggtjnst). Solna. ISBN 91 7332 662 3. 282 pages.
CEN Eurocode 7 ENV 1997-3 Geotechnical Design Part 3. Design assisted by field testing
(1999) Annex B1 and F.
De Beer E.E. (1965). Bearing capacity and settlement of shallow foundations on sand. Proc.
Symposium on the Bearing Capacity and Settlement of Foundations. Duke University,
Lecture 2, 15-33.
International Society for Soil Mechanics and Foundation Engineering. (1989). Report of
Technical Committee on Penetration Testing of Soils TC16 with Reference Test
Procedures, CPT-SPT-DP-WST. Swedish Geotechnical Institute, Information No 7. Linkping
1989.
Schmertmann J., Hartman J.P., Brown P. (1978). Improved strain influence factor diagrams.
ASCE, Journal of Geotechnical Engineering, GT8, 1131-1135.
Steinbrenner W. (1936). A rational method for the determination of the vertical normal stresses
under foundations. Proceedings, 1st International Conference on Soil Mechanics, Cambridge,
Massachusetts, Vol 2.
Swedish Road Administration (1994). Strength and deformation characteristics of soils.
Publication 1994:15 (In Swedish).

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