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Case study of a deep excavation in Toronto

Conference Paper · September 2013

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Case study of a deep excavation in Toronto
L.F. Cao, S.M. Peaker & S. Ahmad
SPL Consultants Limited, Vaughan, Ontario, Canada

ABSTRACT
This paper presents shoring supports for a deep excavation within soft to firm silty clay near a railway in Toronto. The
shoring system which consisted of caisson/soldier pile walls with tiebacks was monitored during excavation. The tieback
testing and field monitoring results were reviewed and discussed. Back-analysis using a finite element program was
carried out to evaluate the shoring wall performance. Recommendations for the design of shoring walls in the similar soil
conditions are provided.

RÉSUMÉ
Cet article présente les parois délocalization pour une excavation profonde dans la argile limoneux doux au solide à
proximité d'un chemin de fer à Toronto. Le système d'étaiement avec les murs embrasses de caissons/soldier ont été
surveillés pendant l'excavation. Les résultats des embrasses essais et les surveillances de terrain ont été examinés et
discutés. Rétro-analyse avec d'un programme d'éléments finis a été utilisé pour évaluer la performance du mur étayage.
Cet article va fournir des recommandations pour la conception des parois délocalisationdans les conditions de sol
similaires.

1 INTRODUCTION site stratigraphy was made up of 2 to 6 m thick, loose to

A few levels of basements are usually constructed into
ground for high-rise buildings in Toronto due to limited
space in densely populated urban environments. Deep
excavation for the construction of underground structures
will induce large stress and strain, which may lead the
damage of adjacent structures and utilities. As the soil
stress-strain behaviour is non-linear and affected by many
factors, it is difficult to predict the ground movement
induced by excavation. In practices, field measurements
are widely used to monitor soil behaviour and to control
ground movement.
This paper presents the results of field measurements
for a deep excavation near a railway in Toronto. Tiebacks
and soldier pile/caisson walls were employed to support
up to 8.5 m deep excavation within generally soft to firm
silty clay. Soldier piles/caissons were installed 14.9 to
16.6 m below existing grade. Two layers of tiebacks were
employed to support the soldier pile/caisson walls.
Performance and proof tests were carried out to verify and
modify the design tieback capacity. Inclinometers and
reflective targets were installed to monitor the movement
of the soldier pile/caisson walls during excavation. The
tieback testing and monitoring results were reviewed and
discussed. A finite element program has been carried out
to evaluate the performance of the shoring walls.
Recommendations for the design of soldier pile/caisson
walls in the similar soil conditions are provided.
2 SITE CONDITION AND TEMPORARY SUPPORT
The site is located at the northwest corner of Old Leslie
Street and Esther Shiner Boulevard in Toronto, Ontario.
Field investigation with drilled boreholes revealed that the
compact fill over 0 to 3 m thick, compact silt to sandy silt
or firm to very stiff clayey silt till which was underlain by 8
to 9 m thick, soft to firm silty clay. Underneath the soft to
firm silty clay, very dense or hard glacial till of silty sand,
sandy silt and silty clay textures with trace gravel to
gravelly was encountered at depths of 12 to 15 m below
grade and extended to 23m below grade. The soft to firm
silty clay is low plasticity soil with a liquid limit of 26,
plastic limit of 16 and plasticity index of 10. The water
content of the silty clay ranged from 12% to 60%, but
generally between 20% and 30%. The undrained shear
strength of silty clay measured from field vane shear tests
ranged from 25 to 45 kPa. The standard penetration
testing (SPT) in the silty clay showed N-values of 1 to 5.
The shallow perched groundwater level was 1.5 to 2.2 m
below grade and deep groundwater table lay at 3.1 to 3.6
m below grade.
A medium to high-rise structure with 2 levels of
basement was proposed to be constructed at this site. For
the construction of the building, excavation up to 8.5 m
below grade was required. As the site was surrounded by
railway, roadway and parking lots, caisson walls and
soldier pile wall were employed to support the excavation.
Caisson wall was used near the railway which was
located about 15m from the wall. Caisson wall consisted
of 1.18 m diameter reinforced caissons installed at
spacing of 2.4 m and 0.88 m diameter filler caissons. The
1.18 m dia. caisson was reinforced with 2 numbers of
W16x60 steel beams. The reinforced caissons were
installed 14.9 to 16.6 m below grade into dense/hard soils
and 6.4 to 8.2 m below the excavation level. The filler
caissons were installed 13.9 to 16.4 m below grade into
dense/ hard soils and 5.9 to 8.0 m below excavation level.
Soldier piles which consisted of steel H-beams W410x54
to W530x138 at 2.4 m spacing with wood laggings were
 120

Movement
100
Alignment Load

Movement (mm)
80

60

40

20

0
0 200 400 600 800 1000 1200

Load (kN)
120
Free Length + 50% Bond Length
Photo 1. Outlook of caisson wall and soldier piles with 100

Elastic Movement (mm)

wood laggings supported by tiebacks Elastic Movement
80 80%Free Length
generally employed at other sides. The soldier piles were Alignment Load
generally installed 14.5 m below grade into dense/hard 60
soils and about 6 m below the excavation level.
Two layers of tiebacks were installed at approximately 40
1.5 to 2.2 m and 5.0 to 5.5 m below grade, respectively to
20
support the caisson and soldier pile walls during
excavation. Photo 1 shows outlook of caisson wall and 0
soldier piles with wood laggings supported by tiebacks. 0 200 400 600 800 1000 1200
The tiebacks were installed within 150 mm dia. cased
boreholes. The upper tiebacks were bonded into shallow Load (kN)
compact silt to sandy silt and/or firm to very stiff clayey silt Load (kN)
till. The lower tiebacks were bonded in very dense or hard
0 200 400 600 800 1000 1200
glacial till. Each tieback was made up of 2 to 6 numbers of
Residual Movement (mm)

0
15 mm strand tendons. The tiebacks were generally post-
grouted the day after they were installed. Table 1
summarizes the tieback characteristics. 5

Table 1. Tieback characteristics 10

Residual
Tieback Inclination Design Free length Bond Movement
15 Alignment Load
level load (kN) (m) length
(m)
Upper 15º 180 6.0 4.2 - 6.5 20
45º 500 13.4 - 18.1 7.5
Figure 1. A typical performance test for upper tieback
Lower 35º 550 12.5 7.5
35º 600 12.5 8.3 (3) The creep amount shall not excess 1mm at test load
45º 860 13.0 12.0 during the period of 1 to 10 minutes or not excess 2mm
within the period of 6 to 60 minutes. A typical result of
performance test is shown in Figure 1. The performance
The tieback design load was verified by performance
tests on the upper tiebacks with bond length of 4.2m could
tests in which the test load was 200% of the design load
not be tested to 200% of design load due to the
and the test load was generally maintained for 30
overestimated bond strength of shallow compact silt to
minutes. The sequence of loading followed the
sandy silt and/or firm to very stiff clayey silt till. The
recommendations of PTI (1996). The majority of the
overestimated bond capacity for tiebacks installed within
performance tests met the acceptance criteria as
shallow granular soils in the current tieback design in
recommendations in PTI (1996): (1) The minimum
Toronto area is also noted by Cao et al. (2011). The
apparent free length at the test load shall not be less than
ultimate load transfer is about 45 kN/m, corresponding to
80% free length plus the jack length; (2) The maximum
ultimate bond strength of 95 kPa. The value of ultimate
apparent free length at the test load shall be less 100%
load transfer for shallow compact silt to sandy silt is lower
free length plus 50% bond length plus the jack length; and
 80 from the measured permanent movement. All proof tests
met the acceptance criteria as recommendations in PTI
Movement (1996) as mentioned earlier.
60
Movement (mm)

3 FIELD MONITORING
40
Prior to the excavation, the shoring walls were reviewed
and noted that they were marginally acceptable. Two
20 options were proposed: (1) add one more layer of
tiebacks; (2) monitor the movements of shoring walls and
nearby railway and retaining walls using field
0
instrumentation during excavation. The contractor
0 200 400 600 800
preferred the monitoring option. Thus extensive field
Load (kN)
monitoring during excavation was recommended. The
80 field monitoring included inclinometers and reflective
Elastic Movement targets installed at the top and middle parts of shoring
Elastic Movement (mm)

80% Free Length walls as well as on railway rail and retaining wall.
60 The caisson wall near the existing railway was
Free Length+50%Bond monitored using inclinometers and reflective targets.
Three inclinometers were installed behind the caisson
40 walls. The inclinometers were monitored during and after
the excavation. Figure 3 shows the monitoring results of
one inclinometer installed in the middle section of the
20
caisson wall including the readings taken after upper and
lower tieback installations, 1 day after the excavation to
0 bottom, and about 1 months after the excavation. The
0 200 400 600 800 lateral deflections measured by reflective targets installed
Load (kN) at the top of caissons are also shown in Figure 3. The
measurements of reflective targets are generally
Figure 2. A typical proof test for upper tieback consistent with the inclinometer measurements except

than the value recommended by Canadian Geotechnical

Society (2006). Applying a resistance factor of 0.6, the Lateral Deflection (mm)
factored load transfer at ultimate limit state (ULS) is 27 -40 -20 0 20 40
KN/m and factored ultimate bond strength is 57 kPa. 0
These values fall within the experimental correlations
between factored ultimate load transfer (bond strength) Loose to
and bond capacity (skin friction) at ULS with the SPT N- compact fill
value proposed by Cao et. al. (2011) as follows: 5

Factored ultimate load transfer (bond strength) (kN/m) Soft to firm

at ULS = 3N [1] silty clay
2
10
Factored ultimate bond capacity (skin friction) (kN/m ) T iebacks
at ULS = 6N [2]
Depth (m)

The average SPT N-value for soils in which tieback is 15 Very dense Excavation
bonded should be used in Eqs. (1) and (2). The proposed sandy silt till Level
correlations need to be verified by performance tests.
Based on the performance test results, the bond
length for the upper tiebacks installed in shallow compact
20
silt to sandy silt and/or firm to very stiff clayey silt till was
increased to 6.5m. Inclinometer after upper tieback installed
Proof tests were carried out for all production tiebacks. Reflective target after upper tieback installed
The proof test load was 133% of the design load and the Inclinometer after lower tieback installed
25 Reflective target after lower tieback installed
test load was generally maintained for 10 minutes for Inclinometer 1 d after excavation to bottom
each tieback. A typical result of tieback proof test is Reflective target 1 d after excavatio to bottom
shown in Figure 2, in which the elastic movement is Inclinometer 1 m after excavation to bottom
Reflective target 11 m after excavation to bottom
usually estimated based on a performance test. In the
case that the performance test cannot be compared with 30
the proof test, the elastic movement should be estimated
Figure 3. Lateral deflection of caisson wall
measurements taken after lower tieback installation, at
which inclinometer gave a lower lateral movement.
The railway located at about 15 m off the caisson wall
was monitored using sixteen reflective targets installed at
3 m spacing along rail. When the excavation reached 6m
below grade, the lateral movement of the railway was up
to 16mm with an average value of 12 mm and settlement
up to 9mm with an average value of 4 mm. Then railway
maintenance was carried out. When the excavation
continued from 6 to 7 m below grade, the railway lateral
movement was up to 12 mm and vertical movement up to
22 mm. One month after exaction to the bottom, no
increment in lateral movement was observed, whereas
increment in settlement was 2 mm.
The soldier pile walls were monitored only using
reflective targets installed at two levels. When excavation
reached 5 m below grade at the north soldier pile wall,
loss of ground behind the wall as well as cracks in the
pavement adjacent the wall were observed.
Corresponding to these observations, a lateral deflection
up to 32 mm was measured by a reflection target installed
at that location. The lost soils were replaced by concrete
as shown in Photo 2. When excavation was to 7 m below
grade, the lateral movement of north soldier pile wall was
up to 70 mm with an average value of 25 mm and
settlement up to 23m m with an average value of 7 mm.
Although significant lateral deflections of the soldier pile
walls were observed locally, the excavation for the
building construction can be considered as successful
since the average lateral movement was limited to a
tolerable level, i.e. 25 mm . Photo 2. Cracks in pavement and concrete pouring to
replace soil
taken as 0.3 for sandy soils and 0.49 for clayey soils. The
4 FINITE ELEMENT BACK-ANALYSIS unit weight, γ was obtained from available laboratory
testing data. Mohr Coulomb failure criterion was used for
Finite element program Phase 2 (version 8.0) was used in soils. The soil properties used in the analysis are shown in
the back-analysis. The program can be used to simulate Table 2.
excavation in soil under plane strain condition. Six-node
triangle elements were used to model the soil media. The Table 2. Soil parameters used in the finite element
caisson wall and tiebacks were modelled by structural analysis
beam elements. The analysis modelled a half width of the
excavation where the right-hand boundary of the mesh
represented the line of symmetry at the centre line of Depth Soil Type γ E su φ Ko
(m) (kN/m3) (MPa) (kPa)
excavation. The finite mesh was 150 m long and 80 m
0 – 5.4 Silty sand 20 10 - 32 0.7
deep. The half width of the excavation was 30m. The fill
bottom boundary was strained from both vertical and Silty clay 19 17.5 35 - 1
5.4 –
horizontal movements. The left-hand and right-hand 13.3
boundaries were free to move in the vertical direction. Sandy silt 22 145 - 36 1
>13.3
The soil profiles used in the analysis were based on till
nearby borehole logs. The groundwater level was taken at Note: Ko is the coefficient of lateral earth pressure (total
3.6 m below existing ground surface prior to excavation. stress).
During the excavation, the groundwater level was
assumed to be drawn down to the excavation level at the The caisson wall was modelled as reinforced concrete
excavated side. with 2 nos. of W16x60 steel beams (equivalent to 2 nos.
For the sandy fill, a Young’s modulus, E of 10 MPa of W410x85) at spacing of 2.4 m. The equivalent
and a friction angle, φ of 32 were assumed. The residual
o
thickness of 40 MPa concrete was taken as 455 mm and
φ was taken as 30 . For the clayey soils, based on file
o
the Young’s modulus was 28 GPa. The concrete
vane shear tests, an average value of undrained shear compressive and tensile strengths were taken as 30 MPa
strength, su of 35 kPa was used in the analysis. The and 3 MPa, respectively. The compressive and tensile
residual su was taken as 50% of the initial su. The strengths of W16x60 were taken as 345 MPa. The
undrained E of clayey soil was estimated from 1000su for Poisson’s ratio for steel and concrete was taken as 0.2.
the low plasticity silty clay. The soil Poisson’s ratio was The equivalent bolt diameters for the upper and lower
 tiebacks were taken as 80.8 mm and 98.8 mm, Lateral Deflection (mm)
respectively. The Young’s modulus of tiebacks was taken -40 -20 0 20 40
0
as 200 GPa. The bond shear stiffness was taken as 6000
kN/m/m based on the tieback proof test results. The bond
lengths of the upper and lower tiebacks were taken as 7.5
m and 12 m, respectively. The spacing of tiebacks was Loose to
5 compact
taken as 2.4 m. Based on tieback proof tests, the pre- fill
tensioning force for the upper and lower tiebacks were
taken as 500 and 860 kN, respectively in the analysis. Excavati
The E90 train load was simulated as 108 kPa uniform on Level
disturbed load on a strip width of 2.44 m. 10 Soft to
Figure 4 shows the deform meshes when the firm
silty T ieback
excavation reaches 7m below grade. The heaven of clay

Depth (m)
excavation base is up to 80 mm and the wall deflection up s
to 34 mm. The nearby train has a litter influence to the 15
lateral deflection of the caisson wall as expected. The
variation in the wall lateral deformation due to train load is Very dense
sandy silt
about 3 mm.
till
20

Inclinometer readings after lower tieback installed

25 Computered deflections after lower tieback installed

Inclinometer readings after excavation to bottom

Computered deflections after excavatio to bottom

30

Figure 5. Measured and computed wall deflections

Field monitoring plays an importation role during the

Figure 4. Deformation of finite element meshes
The measured and computed wall deflections after the
installation of lower tiebacks and the excavation to the
bottom are shown in Figure 5. The computed wall
deflections are in a good agreement with the inclinometer
measurements, indicating that the in-put parameters used
in the analysis are reasonable.
When the excavation reached 7m below grade, the
computed lateral and vertical movements at the location
of railway induced by excavation are smaller than the field
measurements, probably due to that the live load of train
cannot be accurately modelled in the finite element
analysis.
5 CONCLUSIONS
Tieback performance carried out at this site indicated the
bond capacity for shallow granular soils used in the
current tieback design in Toronto area is generally
overestimated. This is consistence with the finding of Cao
et al. (2011). The empirical correlations between bond
capacity and SPT N-value proposed by Cao et al. (2011)
can be used as reference for tieback preliminary design.
ground excavation supported by shoring walls, especially
for an excavation within soft to firm clayey soils, in which
significantly lateral movements of shoring wall can be
observed.
Soldier pile wall is not a good option for supporting
excavation within soft to firm clayey soils, in which loss of
ground behind the wall could happen.
The behavior of shoring wall can be reasonably
predicted by a finite element analysis, provided that
reasonable soil parameters are selected in the analysis.
During excavation, the clayey soils behave as undrained
and thus the undrained modulus and strength need to be
used in the analysis.
REFERENCES
Canadian Geotechnical Society 2006. Canadian
Foundation Engineering Manual, 4th ed., The
Canadian Geotechnical Society c/o BiTech Publisher
Ltd., British Columbia, Canada.
Cao L.F. and Peaker S.M. 2011. Use of tieback in
Southern Ontario. 64th Canadian Geotechnical
Conference, Toronto, Paper 175.
Cao, L.F., Peaker, S.M. and Ahmad, M. 2013.
Performance of a deep excavation in downtown
Toronto, 18
th
International Conference on Soil
Mechanics and Geotechnical Engineering, Paris.
PTI 1996. Recommendations for Prestressed Rock and
Soil Anchors, 3rd ed., Post-Tension Institute, Phoenix,
Arizona, USA.

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