Toward improvement of engineering-geologic explorations

1. The quality of foundation projects, including pile projects, is substantially affected by the quality of the engineering-geologic explorations. Poor explorations data lead to incorrect selection of the foundation type and dimensions, and to underestimating of the pile allowable design loads, which causes overconsumption of materials and increases the labor, construction time, and cost of the foundations. 2. In many cases, the full value of the results depends on the clearness of the tasks raised by the project authors for the reconnaissance specialists. The exploration task should reflect the constructional characteristics of the building or structure, as well as the required base soil data which would subsequently permit carrying out alternative foundation design. 3. The authors of projects for foundations of buildings and structures should know the technical possibilities of the reconnaissance organizations and the appropriate ways of evaluating the obtained results. 4. For large construction projects, under complex engineering-geologic conditions, it is advisable that the design-exploration work be carried out in an integrated manner by forces of an organization specialized in the foundation engineering field, which on the whole permits reducing the cost of the explorations and the time required for performing them. 5. For projects with large pile foundation volumes (1000 piles and more) it is economically advisable to carry out control tests of soils by sounding, use of standard prototype piles, and other field methods during the initial construction period, engaging design-reconnaissance organizations specialized in the foundation engineering field.