The city of Santos in Brazil has a very special problem. Under the 7 meters of sand on which a lot of the buildings were built in the 40’s, 50’s and 60’s, there is a 30-meter layer of very slippery clay. The buildings do not cope well with it.
Loading...
The buildings in Santos, Brazil could be stabilized and “releveled” using a process known as Compaction Grouting. Simply go to ASCE.ORG/PUBLICATIONS and get a copy of the ASCE/GI 53-19 document “Compaction Grouting Consensus Guide”.
I have personally lifted and releveled structures like these in Korea, Japan, United States and Columbia, South America.
The beautiful thing about this system is that it is non-destructive in its application and can be performed while the building is in use. It simply reverses the settlement problem by injecting a very stiff grout thereby displacing the in-situ soils to the point that they heave/lift the earth, structure and underground utilities back to their original elevations.
I was the Chairman of the Compaction Grouting Consensus Guide Committee and would be happy to help with this solution.