Proceedings of Indian Geotechnical Conference

December 15-17, 2011, Kochi (Invited talk-9)

DEEP BASEMENT EXCAVATION

S.R. Gandhi, Dept of Civil Engineering, Indian Institute of Technology Madras

ABSTRACT: In view of the space constraint, most of the commercial buildings as well as residential buildings require multilevel
basements for utilities like car parking, refrigeration unit, affluent treatment plant, etc. For several infrastructure projects like metro
rail, parking lots in commercial area, shopping malls, etc underground structures are preferred to preserve the landscaping in the
area. Excavations up to a depth of 15-20m are very common for most of the projects. To maximize the space available, the
basement extends not only under the entire building area but also extends up to the property line. Some of these property lines are
edge of a busy street with heavy traffic which makes the excavation and construction challenging. This paper describes common
methods adopted for such deep excavation, common problem faced while executing the excavation and remedial measures that can
be adopted. Few case studies have been described highlighting typical problems.

INTRODUCTION DIFFICULTIES ASSOCIATED WITH DEEP

With recent upsurge in commercial/residential multi-storied EXCAVATION
buildings, there has been increasing requirements of car parking Following difficulties have to be addressed while planning the
and other utilities. This requires 3 to 4 basements in most of the excavation scheme:
buildings with large floor area. Such buildings are situated at
strategic points with congested roads around the site and hence i. In view of the large volume of soil to be removed, it is
execution of deep basement excavation poses several preferred to have mechanized excavation. This is
challenging problems. Conventional technique of sheet pile or carried out either with mechanical excavators or with
diaphragm wall is often inadequate due to the large depth of the dozers which operate within the excavation area. This
excavation. Also providing anchors or strut is difficult in view will require provision of a suitable ramp/access for
of presence of utility trenches outside and large scale lowering these equipments to the final excavation
construction activities within the excavation area which has to level.
be completed on a very tight construction schedule.
ii. The ground water table is often very high and requires
large scale dewatering to reduce water pressure on the
retaining walls and to make the excavation stable from
sand boiling/piping failure. Such large scale
dewatering can result in subsidence in the surrounding
area due to the increased effective stress. In many
countries, large scale dewatering for such construction
propose is not permitted and the excavation scheme
has to be designed considering the hydrostatic pressure
on the retaining structure.

iii. The natural strata below the excavation level is often

comprising of loose sand or soft marine clay deposit
which do not provide adequate passive resistance to
the retaining structure to act as a cantilevering wall
and thereby requires either ground improvement or
In view of the above, use of temporary retaining wall such as
additional anchors/struts.
sheet pile is very difficult and open unsupported excavations is
often not possible due to space constraints. This paper describes
iv. The plan dimensions of some of the commercial
the difficulties in execution, alternative methods of executing
buildings are very large exceeding 50 to 100m.
deep excavations in above situation. Few case studies will be
Design of strut for such span with large l/r is not
discussed during the lecture.

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S.R. Gandhi

possible. Also presence of struts significantly affects execution of permanent structure within the excavated area.
the construction activities. Due to much higher rigidity compared to steel sheet pile, this
wall can cantilever for a large height. Also, the spacing of the
v. It is one of the requirements that the basement floors strut or anchors can be reduced. It is also possible to use a “T”
are free from seepage of water. This requires fairly shaped section which can cantilever for a very large height.
good waterproofing of the basement walls and floor.
Even in case of RCC diaphragm wall, the joint
between the panels has to be made water tight either
using a PVC rubber stopper or extensive grouting
along the entire depth of the joint. In several cases,
the water tightness of RCC diaphragm wall is
questioned and as a result permanent wall is made
using in-situ concrete with formwork after excavating
with temporary support. In such case, appropriate
waterproofing treatment can be provided on the outer
side of the wall before backfilling, but this increases
the cost.

i.

Secant Pile Wall

Bored-cast-in-situ piles, almost touching each other in a row
have been used as a retaining structure. Depending on depth of
excavation, the piles can be provided with intermittent support
with anchors or struts. If the soil retained is cohesionless with
RETAINING WALLS COMMONLY ADOPTED
high water table, the zone between the piles may need cement
Following types of retaining elements are commonly adopted:
grouting or inserting additional pile to prevent escape of soil
through the joint. The top of all the piles is normally connected
Steel Sheet Pile Wall
with a common copping beam which makes all the piles as an
This has an advantage of easy installation and subsequent
integral wall.
retrieval for reuse. It is ideally suited for temporary application
where the bending moment expected is not very high. Beyond
certain depth (3 to 4m) this will require either anchors or strut
to reduce the bending moment. Large number of steel sections
are available depending on the requirements. Extending length
of the sheet pile by welding another section axially or removing
excess length by gas cutting is very simple.

RCC Diaphragm Wall

Concrete diaphragm wall varying in thickness from 600mm to
1m is often used either for temporary use or for permanent use
as basement wall. Unlike steel sheet pile, it is not possible to
retrieve the concrete wall and hence this is attractive only
where the wall forms part of a permanent basement wall.
However there are cases where RCC diaphragm wall has been
used as a temporary wall which is left buried in the ground after

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 Deep Basement Excavation

Berlin Wall
In this method wide flange steel sections are inserted along the
excavation line with a centre to centre spacing of about 1m.
The sections are either driven into the ground or they are
lowered in a pre-bored hole. The gap between the bore hole
wall and the section is filled with concrete from the bottom
upto the excavation level. Beyond this the gap is filled with
soil. The excavation is carried out in stages of 0.5 to 1m and as
the excavation progresses, wooden plank or steel formwork
plate is inserted between the steel sections to retain the soil.
The horizontal thrust of retained earth is transferred to the steel
section through the flange.

Distance from wall/wall depth

0 20 40 60 80 100
0

Settlement (m)
20

40 -1.5 m
-5.4 m
-7.6 m
60

80
Fig1. Influence of the excavated depth on the ground
settlement (after Zhu and Liu,1994)
Nailed Wall
As the excavation progresses, the vertical face of the Similarly fig.2 shows the horizontal displacement of the ground
excavation is supported by either steel plate or wooden plank with distance from the wall in a non dimensional form
which is nailed into the ground using long reinforcement rod. normalized with height of the wall.Not much published
After nailing the plate, the excavation is advanced by further work is available in this area and it is preferable that settlement
0.6 to 1m and another plate/plank is placed and nailed. It is monitoring is carried out wherever such deep excavations are
possible to retrieve the planks/plates as well as the nails for executed.
reuse. However unlike other methods, it is not possible to have Distance from wall (m)
horizontal movement/wall

a vertical cut. The face of the retained earth is normally 0.00 0.50 1.00 1.50 2.00
inclined at 70 to 80 degrees with the horizontal. -0.04

-0.02
depth(%)

SOIL MOVEMENT DUE TO EXCAVATION

0.00
Based on monitoring of foundation excavation, it is noticed that Contiguou
the soil behind the retaining wall undergoes vertical and lateral 0.02
movement to a considerable distance. The movement has to 0.04
carefully checked and corrective measures are required to be
0.06
secant
adopted to minimize this movement. Several case studies are
reported where adjacent structures are found to be severally 0.08

damaged due to excavation.

Fig.1 shows typical settlement recorded behind the wall as the Fig2. Maximum movement due to contiguous and
depth of the excavation increases from 1.5m to 7.6m. As can secant bored pile wall (after Puller, 2003)
be seen, the settlement extends upto a distance of 60m from the
wall.

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S.R. Gandhi

ALTERNATIVE EXCAVATION SCHEMES level, but the concrete is poured only upto the required
level of the bottommost basement.
Following alternatives can be considered for deep basements
were struts cannot be provided in view of the large plan IV. The excavation is carried out for a depth of 4m
dimension of the building: throughout the building area. This is maximum height
of excavation which the RCC diaphragm wall can
Excavation with Peripheral Soil Support permit as cantilever.
Excavation of the central area alone, leaving soil with slope
along the perimeter to support the retaining wall. In this V. Provide peripheral dewatering outside the diaphragm
concept, it is possible to reduce the section of retaining wall but wall to lower the water table and reduce bending
it has following disadvantages: moment on the wall. Do not pumpout water within the
excavation area.
Construction joint is required in the basement floors.
For completion of balance excavation along the perimeter, it VI. Leaving a berm of 4 to 5m width from the diaphragm
may not be possible to use excavators due to limited space and wall, excavate the central area of the building with a
manual excavation only can be adopted which is time convenient slope to the final founding level. At this
consuming. level, the piles already constructed will project out.
Chip-off the extra concrete to the required cut-off
Top-Down construction level.
In this concept, after completion of perimeter retaining wall
(RCC Diaphragm) and pile foundation at column locations, the VII. Construct the bottommost basement floor supported
ground floor slab is cast first connected to the peripheral on piles leaving a construction joint along the
diaphragm wall and the piles. Openings are provided at unexcavated area.
required locations to remove the earth subsequently. These VIII. Raise the columns and subsequent floor of the higher
openings are normally at location of staircase, lift well or ramp basement in the central area.
for vehicle movement. The slab can be cast on the natural
ground itself and hence no formwork is required. After this, IX. Use the completed basement floors in the central area
the soil below the slab is excavated upto the next basement to provide lateral support to the diaphragm wall with
level. The slab already cast serves as strut to support the wall. steel struts.
The first basement floor is then cast leaving again openings for X. Remove the unexcavated soil along the perimeter to
second level basement excavation and the procedure above is the foundation level.
repeated.
While the construction of basements is in progress, the work of XI. Extract the dowel bars from the diaphragm wall and
raising the building above ground level can also been taken up complete the bottommost floor upto the construction
simultaneously. join.

CASE STUDY FOR EXCAVATION IN SOFT CLAY XII. Complete balance columns and floor area of higher
A typical case study is discussed where 3 basement excavations basement along the perimeter.
is required to be executed through soft marine clay. Even at the XIII. Remove temporary strut between the central portion
bottommost basement, the shear strength of the strata was very and diaphragm wall.
low and required pile foundation to support the structure.
Various steps involved in construction will be discussed during
Following construction scheme was adopted: the lecture.

I. Provide cement injection grouting for a width of 2m REFERENCES

on either side of the diaphragm wall to improve the 1. Berlie Zhu and Guobin Liu, (1994), elasto plastic
stability of the diaphragm trench and to reduce the analysis of deep excavation in soft clay, Proc of 13th
active pressure and to increase the passive resistance. International Conference in Soil Mechanics and
Foundation Engineering, New Delhi, India.
II. Complete RCC diaphragm wall along the perimeter of 2. Malcolm Puller (2003), Deep excavation a practical
the building. This will also serve as permanent manual 2nd Edition, Thomas Telford Ltd, 1 Heron
basement wall. Quay, London E14 4JD
III. Complete pile construction within the building area.
The piles are constructed from the existing ground

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