Tests on piles in Keuper Marl for the foundations of a blast furnace at Redcar

One of the largest bIast furnaces in Europe is currently being constructed for the British Stee Corporation at Redcar, Teesside. The structure is supported by a 38 m square, 4·O m thick slab carried on 600 mm dia. endbearing piles in the Keuper Marl at a depth of 15 m. The site is on the estuary of the River Tees with a geology consisting of alluvium overlying the marl. The Paper discusses structural design requirements, site investigation and the character of the marl as revealed in boreholes at the site, results of plate tests carried out by the Building Research Establishment (BRE), preliminary pile load test results and their correlation with the plate tests and working pile tests, and construction problems. Assuming an elastic untform response from the pilehnarl system (pile/marl stifness, 180 MN/m per pile) a dished conjiguration was pre dicted for dejlexion of the slab with maximum settlement of 7 mm and d@erential defexion of 3 mm due to slab deformation. Cores ‘obtained from boreholes at the site...