Abstract
A temporary road bridge was constructed over the existing Hokuriku railway line at the Morimoto site, Kanazawa, Japan. Pile foundations were employed for abutments of the bridge. A rapid pile load test, called the Statnamic test, was conducted on one of the bored concrete piles of an abutment of the bridge. During the test, measurements of ground surface accelerations and noise level were performed at different distances away from the test pile. Affects of the Statnamic test on the surroundings were found to be small. One-dimensional stress-wave analysis of the Statnamic test was carried out to estimate the static load-settlement behaviour of the test pile and the profile of the soil properties. Some piles in two abutments of the bridge were instrumented with strain gauges to measure the axial load of each pile throughout the construction steps of the superstructure and during public use. A simplified analysis program PRAB was used to predict the load distribution and the settlements of the piles in the abutment using the profile of the soil properties obtained from the signal matching analysis of the Statnamic test signals. It was found that the field measurements agreed well with the predictions. Through the field measurements and the analyses, the safety of the pile foundation was confirmed.
