Hydraulic and earth engineering – Foundation
Reexamination Certificate
1998-12-29
2001-04-24
Lillis, Eileen D. (Department: 3673)
Hydraulic and earth engineering
Foundation
C405S232000, C052S169900, C052S741150
Reexamination Certificate
active
06220789
ABSTRACT:
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
The present invention relates to a novel method for excavation, shoring and construction of buildings with basements.
Excavations for modern buildings are often thirty or more feet deep. In order to excavate safely, systems have evolved to safely support adjacent buildings and streets from cave-ins during the new building construction. Numerous innovative shoring processes, sheet piles, soldier piles, soil nails and tie-backs, are all common methods used to shore construction excavations. All of these methods are installed only for the purpose of supporting the excavation during the construction and not a part of the actual building.
Using any of the current state of the art methods, the shoring is usually installed before the excavation is can be safely accomplished. On a typical large building, the current shoring methods usually take weeks to install. Design plans for the shoring are usually submitted by the specialty shoring contractor and often times official shoring permit approvals require weeks of time. Excavation of a typical large building site can take additional weeks of time, after the shoring is installed. Under present methods, once the excavation is finished, building construction starts from the lowest level basement footing or supporting pile and goes up.
All of the shoring methods and sequences described above are well known to those familiar with large scale construction. Improvements are frequently patented:
U.S. Pat. No. 4,913,594, J. W. Sigourney (Apr. 3, 1990), discloses “a system for connecting facing panels to soldier piles to support the cut fact of an excavation.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,911,583, C. Carey (Mar. 27, 1990), discloses “a method and structure for shoring a vertical face of an excavation . . . using small holes and grouted rods . . . to form vertical columns.”
U.S. Pat. No. 4,695,203, S. D. Gregory (Sep. 22, 1987) discloses “An improved method for supporting and shoring building foundations and walls (using) pilings outside the structure.”
U.S. Pat. No. 4,678,373, G. F. Langenback (Jul. 7, 1987) discloses a “apparatus for shoring a structure . . . foundation . . . a bracket engageable with the foundation (and) a pile and at least one footing . . . outside the pile.”
U.S. Pat. No. 3,815,369, J. A. Meredith (Jun. 11, 1974), discloses “A shoring system for building site excavating operations utilizing caisson holes drilled in spaced positions outside the building perimeter and receiving flanged pile elements . . . ”
U.S. Pat. No. 5,580,191, P. D. Egan, discloses “A retaining wall, for marine use . . . of corrugated panels anchored in earth . . . ”
It is well known that time is one of the most expensive components of a large building because interest is charged against the funds borrowed by the building owners during the construction process.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
It is a general object of the present invention to save time in the construction process. It is also a general object of the present invention to shave several months off of typical large building construction schedule by building the first floor slab and supporting beams on grade, before any excavation is started, so that the above grade building construction can begin days into the project schedule instead of months. It is also a general object of the present invention to excavate the building site and construct the building foundation by means of an integrated construction/excavation scheduling method which eliminates the need for a conventional shoring system (soldier piles, sheet piles, tie-backs or soil nails) during the excavation/building process.
It is also an object and advantage of the invention to provide a method of installing (below grade) (precast concrete or steel) building columns and piles prior to excavation of the building site by means of drilled holes.
It is also an object and advantage of the invention to provide a method and means of temporarily preventing horizontal movement of said (precast concrete or steel) building columns by use of a concrete back-fill and a schedule for installing said concrete backfill.
It is also an object and advantage of the invention to provide a method and means of preventing said concrete backfill from permanently adhering to said columns.
It is also an object and advantage of the invention to provide a method of shoring the excavation by using the exterior building columns and horizontal (below grade) building floors as support members.
It is also an object and advantage of the invention to provide a method to install the building sidewall panels tight against exterior building columns, and to schedule lowering them simultaneously as the excavation proceeds down, so that, during said installation process, said sidewall panels act as shoring planks.
It is also an object and advantage of the invention to provide and schedule installation of sufficiently rigid shoring panels and planks, supported in the placement process by the exterior building columns, as said shoring panels and planks in turn support the excavation side walls.
It is also an object and advantage of the invention to provide a method of scheduling installation of the below grade beams and slabs “on temporary earth grade” cut as the building excavation progress seriatim down under the (previously cast) ground floor beams and slab, so that said beams and slab provide horizontal support to the building columns which in turn are supporting side wall panels, which are in turn supporting the excavation, this being the object of said invention.
It is also an object and advantage of the invention to provide a method of scheduling excavation for and installation of the below grade building structure under the protection of the first floor building slab, so that construction underground can proceed with extra work shifts and in bad weather, which would normally not be possible with conventional open excavation methods.
It is also an object and advantage of the invention to provide a method of scheduling installation of piles and mass concrete pile caps in such a manner that said installation does not interfere with the scheduling method/process disclosed herein.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
Saving time is a primary object and advantage of the invention. Therefore, the method and scheduling of the installation of standard building components is a primary element of the invention. Employing the construction method herein disclosed, the construction process would proceed as follows.
(1) First construction phase. Beginning at the exterior of the building where the underground parking access is adjacent to the street, holes would be drilled full length and (precast) building columns would be set into said holes and secured with concrete cast in the bottom of said drilled holes. The tops of the columns would be set to grade (typically beneath) the first floor slab.
The columns would be of sufficient length so they would extend beyond the lowest level of the building, so that they, when cast in concrete at their lowest ends, could carry the anticipated loads during the construction process herein described. Once the concrete has set, concrete backfill would then be poured around all sides of the interior columns.
The columns along the exterior of the building would be backfilled with concrete with special care and scheduling. First, the concrete backfill would be installed on the two column sides which are not facing either the interior or the exterior of the building, with care being taken to pour said concrete in even lifts from side to side so as not to exert uneven lateral pressure on said columns. Special care would be taken to prevent concrete from entering the annular space on the exterior side of the column. After this concrete has set, the annular space on the inside face of the column would be filled with concrete. Note that the exterior side of the columns set on the exterior of the building may have a specially hard protective surface layer, (stainless steel, bronze, hard plastic or equal), to facilitate subsequent installation of exterior wall/shor
Brown Martin Haller & McClain LLP
Lagman Frederick L.
Lillis Eileen D.
LandOfFree
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