Breaking News – Recent Pile Testing Results Prove DIP Piles can take a Much Higher Working Load
CMS has been the Caribbean leader in the use of DIP piles since 2010 and has now become the main distributor for the regional supplier, Pieux Battus. Using DIP piles has already enabled CMS, right from the beginning to complete more projects on time and within budget at up to a third of the cost of more traditional piling methods.
Recent news from a project in Libreville on the results of SIMBAT dynamic pile testing have made it possible for CMS to become even more competitive in future. The impressive test results from Gabon demonstrate dramatic improvements in the allowable working load per pile. To date Caribbean project engineers have been allowing a conservative working load of 400kN but use of the SIMBAT test method in Gabon in 2015 has tested and passed piles at 2000kN, allowing a working load for the project of 1000kN. These results will dramatically reduce foundation costs as they are repeated on future projects and as higher working loads are assimilated by regional project design engineers.
Ductile Iron Pile Density Dramatically Reduced
Ultimately this means that ductile iron pile density can be dramatically reduced; saving developers both time and money.
Jerome Coulon, director of Pieux Battus, the regional supplier and part of the original DIP design development team in Austria, stated; “The continuous research and development of the product, undertaken by the manufacturer TRM and based on feedback from its distribution and installation partners, has resulted in major advances in the quality and properties of the castings, accessories, section design and installation equipment. These improvements, combined with the application and installation of the piles by experienced engineers and contractors such as CMS, are producing reliably higher bearing capacities than may have been previously allowed at design stage. We are very pleased to be working closely with CMS in the Caribbean because the quality of installation is key to the successful application of Ductile Iron Pilings.”