The cost of land keeps increasing! In order to maximize the aesthetics, value, and utilization of your property, parking spaces are quite often located below grade. Pump stations and major sewer lines are usually located in low-lying areas. In such instances, excavating some depth below ground surface will invariably encounter groundwater. How do we remove the groundwater? Should we use wellpoints, wells, sumps, or another apparatus to control the groundwater? How much groundwater do we have to remove to allow the excavation to continue?
These and other questions can be answered by a Dewatering Plan. Some construction projects require a Dewatering Plan – other projects let the Contractor wing it! If due consideration is not given to the “means and methods” for dewatering a site beforehand, a construction project can be stopped long before completion.
Shield has been drafting dewatering plans for many years for hundreds of sites throughout the Southeast, with experience in the field going back to the early 1970s. Don’t be like the Contractor who tried to dewater the site in the picture below – he thought he knew how to do it!
Though advised to engage the specialized services of a dewatering expert, the Contractor didn’t spend the money for a Dewatering Plan and unfortunately he lost after three months of dewatering. Don’t let this be your project.
A wellpoint dewatering system did not work here!
A good Dewatering Plan should include a review of available boring logs, soil laboratory tests, and/or hydraulic field tests for the area, and assess the capability of the soil/rock formations to allow water to pass through the matrix. The application of variations forms of “Type Curves” appropriate for the type of subsurface aquifer regime enables the assessment of the drawdown caused by feasible flow rates for the soil/rock formations. These calculations enable the assessment of the number of groundwater withdrawal points and their depth. Are these calculated depths practical or economical? Should wellpoints or wells be used?
More questions about Construction Dewatering? Shield Engineering’s team of talented and experienced professionals are ready to help. No job is too large or too small for our team.
Call us today to get started with your very own comprehensive evaluation.
