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Turki Al-Ghashyan Establishment based in Riyadh appointed Bullivant
Arabia Ltd. to inspect and investigate the cause of cracks in the
walls of the newly constructed villa on the front portion.
Based on the information provided by the client, and as per the
drawings available, the entire building rests on a single raft
foundation of 40cms thickness with an additional depth of 20cms
below the external walls. The suspected problem was the settlement
of the backfilled soil below the mat foundations. The objective of
our study was to diagnose the causes of the cracks and verify the
adequacy of the existing foundation system and the superstructure
and to provide recommendations on the method of strengthening the
structure, if necessary.
The results of investigation carried out revealed that the cracks in
the walls were developed due to the differential settlement of poor
backfill material below the raft foundation. A competent solution to
overcome the problem of active settlement was to support the raft on
minipiles. A total of 153 piles of 150mm diameter were distributed
accordingly, depending on the load distribution over the raft. The
construction and installation of these piles was done by Bullivant
Arabia Ltd. Pressure grouting was also done to fill the cavities
developed under the raft foundation.
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