Heavy foundation works for an entertainment megaproject to be established in Riyadh.
The project
The Qiddiya development is part of Saudi Arabia’s plan to develop the tourism and entertainment industry.
Keller's project scope is to install instrumented drilled piers, micropiles and anchors by using several drilling methods, and test it for tensile and lateral failure loads in order to determine the ground axial and lateral spring response (t-z and p-y curves) that will be used to design the main structures.
The challenge
This was the first major instrumented testing project for Keller in the Middle East using three different products. The tested elements were located along an area of about 10 km² consisting of lower plateau and upper cliffs with discrete access roads. The Cliff required drilling in limestone rock formation of UCS <50MPa while the plateau consisted of dry medium dense gravelly sand.
The solution
A new milestone of 1200t in tension was reached for ME for 1.0m diameter bored piles. The bored pile was loaded laterally to 140t. The 300mm & 225mm diameter micro piles successfully resisted the tensile load of 600t and 45t laterally. A pullout test load of 345t was applied on 225mm diameter strand and rock anchors. The factual and interpretive reports prepared by Keller with ACES included the P-Y and T-Z curves for use in the design of main structures.