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Permanent secant pile wall for underground transit station

M. Motallebi
AECOM, Montreal, Canada

A. Bhargava & V. Nasri

AECOM, New York, USA

ABSTRACT: Secant piles have been traditionally used as temporary support of excavation
for cut-and-cover tunnels and shafts. Alternatively, the secant piles can be integrated into the
permanent structure, where it not only provides the excavation support during construction, but
also forms the envelope supporting the gravity and lateral loads from the permanent structure.
This offers numerous advantages, including reduced excavation cost and time for construction.
This was recently used with great success in construction of an approach structure and an
underground station as part of the one of the largest transit systems in North America, Réseau
Express Métropolitain (REM) located in Montreal, Canada. The current paper presents a case
study based on a project where secant piles were used as the permanent liner. Various structural
and waterproofing solutions implemented to achieve a cost-effective design are presented along
with techniques to ensure water-tight structure with more than 100 years of service life.

1 INTRODUCTION

The Technoparc Station, located at the northeast corner of Alfred-Nobel Boulevard and
Albert-Einstein Street is an underground station on the Airport branch of the Réseau Express
Métropolitain (REM), which is an electric and fully automated, light-rail transit network
designed to facilitate mobility across the Greater Montreal Region in Canada (CDPQ, 2020).
This 67-kilometer light-rail transit network will consist of a total of 26 stations on three
branches. In the Airport Branch, a new single-track bored tunnel, a double-track cut- and-
cover tunnel, and an approach ramp starting from a cut-and- cover station in Technoparc
area will link the airport with Downtown Montreal. Figure 1 shows the network map and
highlights the airport branch on the new Green Line.

Figure 1. REM light-rail transit network.

DOI: 10.1201/9781003348030-91

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 The retaining walls of the station and the ramp strucutre is constructed using permanent
secant pile walls which provide the exacation support during construction and in the perman­
ent condition they integrated with station structure. Such a construction approach has also
been used for Nordhavn Metro, Copenhagen (Dam 2016). This paper presents the design con­
cept and challengeable construction method of Technoparc station. Figure 2 shows a 3D
model view of the project highlighting the key elements.

Figure 2. Approach ramp, Technoparc station and cut-and-cover tunnels.

At the project location, REM starts to descend from the surface and enters a 200 m long
U-boat structure followed by a 130 m long cut and cover tunnel which leads to the under­
ground Technoparc Station. REM leaves the station to enter another 110 m long cut-and-
cover tunnel before transitioning into a bored tunnel. The bored Airport tunnel is about
2.5 km long and is excavated with an Earth Pressure Balance (EPB) Tunnel Boring Machine
(TBM). The launch pit is located at the end of the 110 m tunnel (Figure 2). The TBM is
launched from here approximately 14 m below the grade and continues to descend before
reaching the bedrock 40 m below the grade where it progresses at a constant slope of 0.3%.
Ground conditions are evaluated as the TBM progresses and pre-excavation grouting is per­
formed as a measure for ground improvement (Lee et al. 2022).
The design solution and construction methods are implemented with BIM technology for
successful achievement of coordination including the optimum design, meeting owner’s tech­
nical requirements, and construction duration and risk of underground construction. Such
a multi-level information modeling approach is a recent trend in tunneling projects and given
the complexity of the project BIM has proven to be extremely useful (Vovou, Jeon and Nasri
2020). The project is currently under construction by two joint venture teams that are Con­
struction Joint venture and Engineering Joint venture (Nasri et al. 2019).

2 GEOLOGICAL CONDITIONS

The Montreal local geological strata consist primarily of sub-horizontal layers of sedimentary
rocks. The rock classification in the area are limestone and shale. Figure 3 shows the geotechnical
profile at the Technoparc station. The subsurface conditions along the tunnel alignment and its
elements generally consist of 0 m to 3 m thick fill material below ground surface overlaying 10 m to
15 m thick glacial till composed of sand, silt, gravel and clay (SM) that is underlain by 0 m to
5 m thick dense glacial till (GW). Below the dense glacial till is the bedrock consisting limestone and
shale with average unconfined compressive strength of over 90 MPa that corresponds to a good to
excellent quality The groundwater table is 2.7 to 3.5 meters below the ground surface, resulting in
a water head of in the range of 10 m to 12 m at the bottom of the invert. Such high level of water
poses major design challenge in terms of waterproofing and long-term durability of the structure.

3 SUPPORT OF EXCAVATION DESIGN

Secant pile wall system for the sidewalls is selected as the preferred and efficient method of
construction as this serves the purpose for both temporary and permanent structures. This
system is used in all three segments, i.e., approach ramp, cut and cover tunnel and Technoparc
station. Secant pile walls are formed by constructing intersecting reinforced concrete vertical

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piles (i.e., drilled shafts). The secant piled wall consists of alternate primary piles installed first
and subsequently the secondary piles are constructed by boring through the concrete in the
primary piles to key the secondary piles between them.
As shown in Figure 4 the 1 m diameter primary piles are unreinforced and are spaced at
1.6 m on center typical. The 1 m diameter secondary piles are either reinforced with steel rebars
or steel wide flange section. To facilitate connection between secondary piles and steel structure,
wide flange steel section is placed in every other secondary pile which supports the steels seats
and consequently steel structure. Rebar cage is used in the remaining secondary piles.

Figure 3. Geological profile at Technoparc station.

Figure 4. Typical secant pile details.

In the station and cut-and-cover tunnel, the bottom of secant piles is extended to the top
underlying rock which is about 7 m to 10 m below the bottom of excavation. This embedment is
required to tolerate gravity force of the station and backfill zone in addition to resisting lateral
earth pressure. It shall be noted that the bottom of adjacent primary and secondary piles is at
the same elevation because the presence of primary piles is required for construction of the adja­
cent secondary pile. Piles does not extend to the bed rock in limitation of the U-boat structure.
The piles were drilled up to specific depth below the bottom of excavation. This depth depends
on the depth of excavation and varied along the U-boat structure. Minimum 100 mm shotcrete
liner is installed on the inside face of the secant pile wall. Spray-on water proofing system is inte­
grated in this liner which provides the water tightness required for the permanent condition.

4 DURABILITY DESIGN

One of the main challenges for use of permanent secant pile is to satisfy the durability requirement
of the project, 125 years. Underground structure may be subjected to the coupling effects of deg­
radation factors such as carbonation, sulfate and chloride-induce corrosion by ground water and
surrounding ground. Technoparc station is considered as a light-rail underground station in cold
regions and concrete walls and invert and roof slabs may experience exposure to chloride-induced
corrosion condition from run-off water when de-icing salt is used in adjacent roads. The toe of
piles is placed on sound carbonated bedrock. As part of the secant pile wall is excavated below the
ground water table, it is expected that concrete be exposed to bicarbonate. Therefore, carbonate-
induced corrosion is considered as a durability factor. Geotechnical studies demonstrate very low
sulfate concentration in the ground and ground water adjacent to the station, even less than

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minimum concentration limit of lightest exposure class. Therefore, the external sulfate attack is
not considered as a durability factor in this station. All types of underground stations built in cold
regions are susceptible to frost attack and frees-thawing. Secant pile wall and roof slabs can be
exposed to the frozen ground and groundwater. Further, the concrete mix was designed to be suf­
ficiently workable to allow bridging the gap between primary and secondary piles following the
extraction of temporary casing. Due to the presence of high underground water table, the mix was
designed to be resistant to wash out. All these durability factors and construction concerns are
considered in the design of concrete mix of the secant pile walls.
Reinforced-concrete piles are designed following service-life prediction models of the project.
The chloride ion concentration was measured in the existing concrete elements of adjacent buried
structures. This value establishes a base line to be used in service-life prediction models of the pro­
ject. Model predicts 90 mm as the required concrete cover of carbon steel elements in reinforced
concrete pile while 125 mm cover is provided in the design and construction of secant pile walls.

5 SECANT PILE WALL CONSTRUCTION

The secant pile wall is designed to resist the lateral earth and hydrostatic pressure due to the
retained soil. In addition to this, walls are designed for the construction live load surcharge,
permanent live load surcharge and dynamic earth forces due to seismic. To support lateral
pressure, two levels of struts are provided at station area. For the full contact between waler
and secant pile wall, the continuous concrete scrapes on secant pile wall is provided at the
backside of waler flange. With consideration of wide flange section installation tolerance
including 25 mm horizontal tolerance at top and 0.5% verticality for secant pile, and 1 degree
rotation tolerance for wide flange, ±50 mm gap is provided and filled with non-shrink high
strength grout for full contact between waler and secant pile wall.
The wall construction photos in Figures 5 and 6 highlight the key elements of support of
excavation (SOE). The secant pile wall is laterally supported by permanent struts at the street
level, mid-depth level, and an invert slab at the bottom of the excavation. W-flange street level
beams act as a strut during the support of excavation and supports the gravity loads in add­
ition to the axial forces in the permanent condition with concrete slab on top.

Figure 5. Secant pile wall and SOE system, station.

Prior to start of drilling, a reinforced concrete guidewall is constructed. The purpose of the
guidewall is to control the accuracy of the pile alignment and initial verticality. The trench for
the guidewall is approximately 1.2 metres wider than the intended secant pile wall and approxi­
mately 0.7 metres deep. After excavation of the trench, concrete is casted while the Styrofoam
forms are placed in the location of the piles and the longitudinal reinforcements are installed
along the guidewall (Figure 7a). The drilling of the secant pile wall then starts with the primary
piles. The general sequence is drilling primary piles followed by secondary piles within 1 or 2
days at the latest. The sequence is varied depending on site conditions and actual concrete
strength gain with time. The drilling of adjacent piles follows confirmation of adequate concrete

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Figure 6. Secant pile wall and SOE and permanent structural system, cut and cover ramp.

strength in the primary piles. This strength gain is usually attained between 16 to 24 hours for
the proposed mix. Cylinders are taken during concrete placement for primary piles, to be tested
the following day to confirm concrete strength prior to starting of secondary piles.
Piling is performed using a fully cased method of installation. To start drilling, the piling rig
(Figure 7b) is positioned over the center of pile using the guide wall. The verticality of the rig
mast using the electronic leveling system of the rig. The piling rig installs a starter segment of
temporary casing with drilling shoe which is drilled and pushed into the ground with the
rotary drive. Segmental casing is added once the embedded casing length is at an appropriate
depth. Variety of drilling tools such as soil/rock augers, rock buckets, cleaning buckets, core
barrels and cross cutters are implemented depending on the geotechnical conditions. The tem­
porary segmental casing is always advanced ahead of the drilling tools and there will be no
drilling of the soils outside (i.e. below) the casing.

Figure 7. (a) guidewall construction, (b) drilling rig and temporary segmental casing.

Wet method of construction is implemented to counterbalance the ground water pressure

during drilling. In this method, piles are initially drilled in the dry conditions to a specified
depth. During the drilling, minimum of 1.0 m soil plug in the casing is maintained in order to
protect the base from heaving due to groundwater pressures until water is introduced in the
pile. After the initial advancement of the pile borehole following above mentioned procedure,
water is introduced in the pile and is maintained approximately 2.0 m above water table.
Installing temporary casing and drilling inside the casings continues until the design pile toe
level (top of rock surface) is reached. All loose materials are removed from the toe of the pile
using cleaning bucket. The depth of the pile and cleanliness of the toe of pile is inspected and
confirmed by the geotechnical inspector in advance of casting concrete.
Concrete is then poured through a hopper and a tremie pipe or a tremie pipe directly connected
to a boom concrete pump. Tremie pipe is lowered by crane to toe of pile. An inflatable rubber
ball is placed into the hopper before pouring the concrete to minimize direct contact and mixing
of the initial discharge of fresh concrete with water, preventing potential segregation in the

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tremie. The ball is pushed to top of the concrete rising column and out of the pile. As the concrete
is discharged through the tremie line, the tremie pipe is raised a short distance (maximum
200 mm) to start the concrete flow, allowing the plug to be released from the tremie end. At all
times, the tip of the tremie pipe will be embedded a minimum of 3 m in concrete. As concrete is
placed, drilling water is pumped out of the pile. Casing is oscillated out progressively during con­
creting and removed in sections. Concrete is overpoured to the cutoff until uncontaminated con­
crete is visible at the end of the pour to ensure quality of concrete in the pile.
For secondary piles with rebar cage reinforcement, the cage is installed into the temporary
casing prior to the placement of concrete with adequate spacers to ensure minimum concrete
coverage of the reinforcement. Due to the presence of spacers, the reinforcement follows the
verticality of the installation of the casings. Casing will be oscillated out during removal of
casing to avoid any twisting or deformation of the cage. In case of wide flange sections, they
are plunged in fresh concrete after the pile is completely poured and the casing is completely
removed. The installation is done with the help of a steel centering template temporarily fixed
on top of the guidewall (Figure 8). Template is leveled as required using shims. The template
is left in place during the setting of concrete to ensure beam stays in position, adding wedges
on the flange axis to secure the gap between the flanges and the template.

Figure 8. Steel template for installation of WF sections.

The width of trench in the station area varies between 17.5m and 24m, then interior columns/
piles are needed as key elements of SOE and permanent structural system. Temporary segmental
casing is used to install these piles. The verticality of the casing is verified continuously during
drilling. The drilling rig penetrates the casing into the sound rock for a short distance to prevent
soil inclusion. After that drilling tool advances into the rock ahead of casing until it excavates
the required depth of the rock socket. After cleaning of the toe of the pile, the steel tube is
placed into the casing. Special template (Figure 9) is used to place the steel tube at expected
position within required horizontal and verticality tolerances. These columns required a more
restricted installation tolerance: 10 mm horizontal tolerance at top and 0.5% verticality.

Figure 9. Installation of interior column/pile.

Once the pile position is set and confirmed, a concrete tremie is lowered and self-consolidating
concrete is pumped until it fills the rock socket completely. The position and verticality of the
steel tube is re-checked and adjusted if needed right after concreting and before the concrete sets.
The template is removed following day when concrete sets, the toe of casing is vacuum cleaned

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and inspected to make sure that the surface is hard and exempted of sediments/concrete laitance.
The pile is backfilled with self-consolidating concrete up to 1-2 m above the bottom elevation of
station invert slab while progressively retrieving the temporary casing. The position of the steel
tube is monitored continuously as the casing is retrieved. Clean stone is then placed on top of the
fresh concrete to ground level and the temporary casing is fully removed.
To prevent water infiltration into the excavation, dewatering was done only within the limits of
excavation. In advance of excavation, multiple dewatering wells were drilled along the station
and approach ramps. They were extended up to at least 1 m below the base of excavation.
Dewatering was continued during excavation and construction of invert slab. During casting
invert slab, the dewatering wells of each pour were plugged in advance of waterproofing, while
dewatering was continued through dewatering wells located in adjacent pour. Casting was done
in a single direction to push water to the edge of the pour limits and force it out of casting limits.

6 OBSERVED CONSTRUCTION ISSUES AND DESIGN SOLUTIONS

The WF section inside pile deviated from the specified construction tolerance at a few piles.
This issue was addressed by slightly adjusting the steel seats. The welding connections of steel
seats to the WF section was adjusted based on the information obtained from the as-built
survey of exposed portion of WF section (Figure 10).

Figure 10. Installation of steel seats.

Horizontal cracks on the pile body and gaps at the joints between piles were observed at
locations along the secant pile wall (Figure 11). These defects can result in water infiltration
along the secant pile wall. It shall be noted geotechnical instrumentation of piles does not
show any deformation beyond expected values. The crack meter installed on the crack also
shows stable behavior of crack. Due to these observations, it is concluded that crack was
occurred due to issues during concrete placement of the piles.

Figure 11. (a) Horizontal crack, (b) defect of pile joint.

To remedy this issue, additional actions are taken. The horizontal cracks are injected by
polyurethan injection material up to substantially dry condition (Figure 12a). The soil and
loose material should be removed from the pile joints using high pressure water. The joint
then will be backfilled with shotcrete. After that, the joint is injected with polyurethan injec­
tion material up to substantially dry condition (Figure 12b).

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Figure 12. Remedial actions, (a), for horizontal cracks and, (b), for defects of pile joints.

Further, the drain layer is installed on the pile joints to prevent any build up pressure on the
final shotcrete layer. On top of that, a monolithic drainage net should be installed over the
base shotcrete layer of water proofing liner to prevent build up pressure due to water infiltra­
tion from horizontal cracks. Then, a smoothing layer is sprayed over the base layer, following
which spray-on water proofing membrane is applied over the smoothing layer. The protection
shotcrete layer is sprayed over the water proofing membrane (Figure 13).
As shown in Figure 13 a drainage gutter is provided for the full perimeter of the station at the
elevation of invert slab. It collects and transfers potential minor water infiltration through secant
pile walls even after repair actions. Specific detail is developed to connect the spray-on membrane
and the PVC waterproofing membrane used at the bottom of excavation. Further, re-injection
hose system is implemented at the zone adjacent to the construction joint between PVC and
spray-on waterproofing membrane. Hollow core, PVC injection hoses are installed along the
secant pile wall within the depth of invert slab. These hoses can be reinjected many times when
they are used in conjunction with specific acrylate-based injection resins. The reinjection capability
provides a complete maintenance solution to tackle future leakage in this zone.

Figure 13. Details of water proofing.

7 CONCLUSIONS

The construction of Tecnoparc station is accomplished using permanent secant piles. This paper
presents steps to integrate the secant piles into the permanent structure and presents challenge
and issues observed during design and construction. The ground water table being high at the
site posed a major challenge during construction and design, especially to provide a durable and
watertight system. During construction, staged dewatering within excavation limits was used to
reduce the water infiltration. Horizontal cracks and joint defects observed in construction are
remediated by using a combination of polyurethan injections and monolithic drainage net.
Watertight design was achieved by providing spray-on waterproofing on the piles and connect­
ing it with the PVC membrane under the invert. This interface is equipped with injection hoses
which provides reinjection capability for long term maintenance.

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Ma, J. 2011. “Application of spray-on waterproofing membrane in tunnels.” Advanced Materials
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