Furthermore, the longitudinal rein- forcement requires support at the bottom of the shaft. Supports installed on the bottom ends of longitudinal reinforce-ment reduce the intrusion of moisture and help distribute the weight of reinforcing bars into the soil without allowing the bars to sink into the underlying soil. Quality and Use Side form spacers need to resist dis- lodgement and/or breakage as the reinforcement cage is placed into a drilled shaft. No standard test method is available to evaluate dislodgement and breakage. Experience shows that sled-type supports should be attached to the vertical rein- forcing bars and should straddle ties or spirals to reduce the tendency to rotate on or slide along the vertical bars. Sled-type supports have been discontinued by most manufacturers because they are difficult to use, and wheel-type supports are preferable. Wheel-type spacers are fastened around transverse reinforcement. These supports outperform sled-types because rotation of the wheel results in less friction against the shaft wall, reducing dislodgement of soil where the spacer contacts the shaft wall. This rotation also lowers the forces on the spacer and may assist in placement of flexible reinforcement cages, particularly where the reinforcement might drag against irregularities along the shaft. Despite the requirements and benefits, reinforcement is frequently placed without the use of side form spacers. While the selection of reinforcement supports is often a matter of the means and methods of construction, it is important for engineers to specify in the construction documents that supports be used and at the required/ maximum spacing. Including specifi- cations for reinforcement supports in the construction documents ensures the contractor has received notice to use the correct bar supports. During bidding, contractors can then include appropriate compensation for the purchase and installation of these supports. During construction, it is less likely that the supports will be omitted because of an oversight because the supports have been specified and are required. PVC wheel-type side spacer Specifications To almost everyone involved with con- struction, specifications seem to be a strange and mysterious world — massive amounts of technical information, references to obscure standards, and no graphics, just thousands of incomprehensible words. Architectural designers focus on the aesthetics of a building project; therefore, they tend to not appreciate, care too much for, nor even want to understand specifications. The architects and engineers that produce construction drawings know that they have to contribute technical information to the specification efforts, but they simply do not know how specifications work, and they also seem to not want to know. Many contractors tend to believe that the only functional role of specifications is to serve as door stops in the job trailer. However, when things go wrong, there is a mad, ruthless and every-man-for-himself race to the specifications to see what was supposed to have been provided, erected, applied or installed. Specifications matter and they serve an important purpose, as one of the two instruments of service (the other being drawings) that are required, necessary and essential to proper construction. Since it is not possible for the notes on the drawings to include sufficient amounts of the technical information required to perform the work, specifications are needed, and they should be the repository of technical information. Drawings and specifications are complementary of each other. If specifications are not included on a project, and the terms on the drawings are generic, then the contractor gets to select whichever product they would like without regard for quality, or if it is even the right product for that application. Without specifications, there are no submittal requirements, no special warranties, no manufacturer and installer qualifications, no preconstruction or field testing and inspections for quality control, no pre- paration provisions for the subbase before something is erected, installed, or applied, and no performance requirements. If there are no specifications, will the owner really get the project it is paying for? There are specific amounts of technical information that are necessary to properly construct a project. Architects and engineers are charged with the respon- sibility of producing necessary infor- mation, and the only way of doing so is to provide both drawings and specifications. Drawings alone are not sufficient to construct a project; specifications are essential to the success of constructing projects. In addition to possibly violating state licensing laws, architects and engi- neers that produce construction docu- ments without specifications are not rendering the kind of professional service to their clients that has come to be expected from the profession. DEEP FOUNDATIONS • JULY/AUG 2019 • 93
