BY Steve Barnhardt

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Hydraulic Excavation Brace Used As Tie Back Support for Slide Rail System

A contractor had been tasked with installing four 22-ft concrete vaults for tank insulation on a Southwestern US military base. The project would require an excavation of approximately 40-ft wide, 60-ft long, and 20-ft deep.  The contractor’s Competent Person had classified the clay soil as Type-B soil. The contractor’s initial focus on this project was the size of the excavation that would be required and ensuring that the crew would be safe and that work could progress efficiently. In addition to the excavation requirements, there was a utility package about eight away from the excavation site that would need to be considered when selecting a protective system to prevent soil movement.

The contractor contacted NTS to discuss potential options to shore the excavation site. NTS discussed a few options with the contractor and the contractor selected a site-specific slide rail system to leverage the most efficient and cost-effective system for the project.  The design of this slide rail system would feature rolling struts during the installation process with some of those rolling struts to be removed once the excavation was supported by a tieback system.  In place of a standard tieback system, NTS’s engineering team allowed the use of hydraulic excavation braces along the perimeter of the excavation. The hydraulic excavation brace would provide the necessary bracing to distribute pressure along the entire length of the system as well as solving the need for a larger beam to span the entire excavation, which can be costly and also difficult to transport. The contractor was very satisfied with the design of the system and the effectiveness. The use of the hydraulic braces as a tie back was a solution outside the typical application, however, it helped to minimize the amount of space beams that would be required as well as the overall cost for the project.

 

 

 

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