Vibratory pile driving - evaluation of ground motions for optimization of efficiency and environmental impact

Soils of low bearing capacity are rather common in countries like Colombia, where topography, weather and vegetation favour high rates of erosion and sedimentation; piling, both for bearing capacity and lateral containment, is necessary in many cases. PiIe driving with vibrators is becoming a widely used technique, specially in infrastructure projects. Vibratory pile driving has been used extensively in a large waste-water treatment plant project in Cali, Colombia. Several hundred steel sheet piles are being driven for lateral ground containment into soil composed of alternating layers of clay, silt, sand and gravel, with very shallow and strongly varying water levels.