BSP Hammers at Record Length Penang Bridge Construction work is underway on the longest bridge in Malaysia and Southeast Asia, which will connect Batu Kawan on the mainland to two locations on Penang Island. When finally completed in 2013, the cable-stayed bridge will have a two-lane carriageway and a motorcycle lane in each direction. The main span will be 250 m (820 ft) long with a length over water of 17 km (10.6 mi) and a 30 m (98.4 ft) height above the water. The design life is 120 years. Costing an estimated £934 million, the 24 km (15 mi) long bridge is being built with a loan from the People’s Republic of China. A joint venture, Chinese Harbour Engineering Company (CHEC) and the United Engineers Malaysia Berhad (UEM) Group, is doing the construction in phases: the £460 million work on the main span, substructure and foundations, expected to be complete in 2012; a £325million contract for the superstructure to be complete in 2013; the third phase involves £150 million of land- based works. Construction began in January 2008. Last year, the Malaysian government said the project would be delayed by nine months because the new bridge had to be redesigned to resemble the First Penang Bridge, completed in 1985. CHEC purchased two BSP International Foundations (BSP) heavy-duty CGL370 hydraulic piling hammers to perform the piling work for the bridge foundations. Each hammer is fitted with a 25 tonne (27.6 ton) ram weight and has a maximum stroke of 1.5 m (4.9 ft) and a blow rate of between 32 and 75 blows per minute. The CG and CGL models can be used freely suspended or configured with backguides for mounting to leaders, cranes or barge mounted, as at Penang. Features include easily accessible cylinder and ram weight connection parts for maintenance while attachment points allow vertical or raking piles to be driven. A digital readout of the hammer’s performance, stroke and energy is available. Piles up to 2 m (6.6 ft) diameter can be driven as standard, and with special attachments larger diameters can be easily accommodated. Both BSP hammers were fixed on specially built barge-mounted leaders with one working from the shore at Batu Kawan on the mainland while the other worked from Batu Maung on Penang Island. By April 2011, piling work was nearly completed but building the pile caps and bridge support piers proved difficult through delays caused when the company had to amend its cap and pier design to ensure they could withstand an earthquake of 8.0 on the Richter scale. Each of the two BSP hammers for the supporting piers is arranged in two parallel rows. The majority are spun concrete piles 1 m (39.4 in) in diameter and between 57 m (187 ft) and 60 m (197 ft) long with some driven at a rake (batter) of 7:1. Some 750 tubular steel piles measuring 1.6 m (5.25 ft) in diameter and 77 m (252.6 ft) long were also driven. The piles were driven into the seabed, consisting of soft clay overlaying medium-dense sandy silt. At the end of the drive N values average 50-60. Between five to ten piles were driven per day. As the work progressed on both sides of the Malacca Strait, over 700 employees worked round the clock at three segment casting plants in Batu Kawan, to produce the 8,092 segmental box girders, at the rate of between 12-14 units daily from the 22 moulds on-shore. Since work began, the bridge was widened from two to three lanes, except the center span, but by 2012 traffic is expected to exceed its capacity. Today 64,000 vehicles use the crossing daily and 80,000 vehicles are expected. The new bridge will divert at least 25% of the traffic from the original bridge. By the time the tests and trial runs are conducted, it is likely to be open to traffic in early 2014. World’s Largest H-Piles Debut The very large new piles, HP16 and HP18, were accepted by ASTM in its standard speci- fications in 2010. GRL Engi- neers, Inc. was involved in the conception and testing of this innovation, notably the firm’s vice president, Mohamad Hussein, P.E, since 2009. GRL engineers from the Chicago and Charlotte offices monitored the installation of the first production piles during the initial Analyzer (PDA) to conduct dynamic testing that evaluated the driveability and bearing capacity of the foundation elements. GRL’s connection to the world’s largest H-piles continues, as its Cleveland office had the opportunity to again use the PDA to test the HP18 piles during construction of the Inner Belt Bridge in Cleveland, Ohio. The dynamic load test of the 160 ft (48.7 m) long piles, which were driven to shale bedrock, required the use of the APPLE IV dynamic loading system during a restrike. The piles are manufactured by Nucor-Yamato Steel, Blytheville, Ark. and distributed by Skyline Steel. investigation phase. At that time, GRL employed the Pile Driving ® DEEP FOUNDATIONS • JAN/FEB 2012 • 81 Inner Belt Bridge, Cleveland, OH
