Second Week at the design office
After arriving last week, it has been none stop. Initially I found myself updating the drawings for Fisher Street (the Crossrail project).
However that only took a day, I was then tasked with doing a Cat 3 (external) check on some pile calculations. I was already worried about this task, then when I found out that the boundaries consisted of: 4 track line into Waterloo, Thames River and a 25 storey building. The most worrying of these boundaries was the railway line. The 4 tracks were positioned on a old brick viaduct, that had a 5mm capacity for settlement. Then I found out that the piles where for 3 x 30 storey buildings.
So I have now completed my calcs according to Eurocode 7. Initially I created the worst case scenario of the ground strata that would be encountered by the piles. From this I calculated both the shaft and the End bearing capacities of the piles. This was done by creating a spreadsheet (similar to the ones we did during phase 1) that has been setup, that all I have to do is input the dia of the shaft and the dead and live loads placed on the piles.I have then carried out a settlement calc using the Wallup software and the Tomlinson & Woodward approach. This has included both the long term and short term assessment. Both these conditions required differing inputs for the Clay and the stiffness of the wall (Secant Piles). I am now awaiting Skanska’s design to see if it comes anywhere near my cals. I hope they do!!!!!
The other big difference here is that each minute of the day has to be accounted for. That means that you have to submit a breakdown of the time you spend on each project. No more sending messages to Rich Phillips during the day, not if I want to keep the illusion of working.
Holdfast Training Services Trial Blog 
I guess that the lateral loads are being routed to the core; So I’d expect that the piles beneath the core are:
a) tension and compression
b) of maximum load
There also seems to be transfer at the second floor level , and then again at ground leve, so I guess that some of the load paths collect significantly- perhaps to the boundary diaphragms?
It’s alright dude, I don’t get any phone signal anyway! Plus it’s completely silent in my office so definitely no chance for phone comms.