Highway 53 Bridge Test Pile Program

Description

The Highway 53 Bridge will be Minnesota's tallest bridge.  The bridge will span the now retired Rouchleau Mine Pit in Virigina, Minnesota, which now serves as Virginia's drinking water reservoir and a scenic vista for tourists to the region.  In order to build this record setting bridge, a foundation system was required to support the future structure.   This foundation system would be required to penetrate up to 130 of mine blast rock and spoils and then extend 45 feet into the underlying bedrock.  In order to evaluate the feasibility and type of deep foundation system at the site, a test pile program was proposed.
 
The test pile program would evaluate a 8' diameter conventional drilled shaft as well as a 16" and 24" pipe pile.   These pile would be installed over the water within the pit along a potential alignment for the future highway.    It was anticipated that down the hole hammers (DTH) or cluster drills would need to be utilized to penetrate the overburden and underlying bedrock, due to the potential of extremely large obstructions in the overburden fill soils and the penetration required into the extremely hard bedrock.  
 
The presentation will highlight the the history of the site, geotechnical challenges, the access/environmental concerns of the site, the equipment and methodology employed, the installation and the testing program and finally the results.   
 
Speaker: 
Nate Iverson, Veit’s Senior Geotechnical Engineer, is a registered professional engineer and a project manager at Veit. Nate has 15 years of experience in implementation and design of many types of specialized foundations for structures, including drilled piers, down hole hammer installed piers, auger cast piles, driven piles, helical piles, resistance piers, and micro-piles. His experience makes him uniquely qualified to tackle tough foundation projects that require innovative solutions.