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.
The Leaning Buildings of Santos (9 photos)
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.