The Safety Level Of Concrete Pile Foundations Under Industrial Monuments

Prefabricated concrete piles have been used for the foundation of bigger buildings for about a century. Often a change in function, an addition (also vertically) or another type of alteration is required, resulting in different loads on the foundation. There are several complicating factors that return regularly in these assessments. The first one is a lack of data. Often drawings are missing or incomplete, e.g. showing only pile head dimensions or maximum calculated load but not the pile length, pile tip shape or material properties. Inspection is hard and only possible for the part directly under the pile head. And a third complication is that in The Netherlands there have only been official codes for piles since 1992. Various calculation and design methods from WWII until 1985 are discussed to see if there is any consistency that might lead to an indication of the load bearing capacity of piles in The Netherlands from that era. It is concluded that design rules for the load bearing capacity of concrete pile foundations in The Netherlands have been inconsistent over time. If the original detailed geotechnical calculations and/or structural drawings cannot be found in archives then the given ultimate loads cannot only not be exceeded; even if the load on a pile is currently less than stated on the technical specifications designers are advised not to increase the load.