Repair of the foundation and induced subsidence of an industrial building by using control piles and material extraction

Abstract

The case of repair and induced subsidence of the foundation of an industrial building, whose foundation consists of isolated footings and friction piles, is presented; located in a seismic zone and of great subsidence in Mexico. The repair procedure consisted in the construction of a reinforced concrete cell to convert the friction piles to control piles and also to allow the extraction of material underneath the foundation, making the building follow the regional subsidence. Through this process the building settled 0.27m. During the work, two earthquakes of magnitude 6.6 and 5.4 occurred, in none of them was detected damage or malfunction of the system, maintaining at all times the safety of workers, the structure and the traffic of vehicles.