Innovative Design of Pile Foundation for 34 M High Lighting Pole at Cricket Stadium, Golwadi, Aurangabad—A Case Study

Pile foundations are usually adopted to transfer the loads to a relatively hard stratum lying at deeper depths. The depth of foundation typically varies based on the structural load requirements. However, in cases where rock stratum encountering at deeper depths, resting of piles on rock stratum proves to be uneconomical. Similar case was encountered in construction of pile foundation for pole at cricket stadium, Golwadi, Aurangabad. The geotechnical investigation was conducted to obtain the variation in soil profile. The conventional design of pile foundation suggested by other consultant was resulted in a pile of length 30 m, whereas the pile construction proved to be uneconomical. The pile is intended to resist vertical, lateral as well as uplift loading that arises due to the structural loads and wind loads. A major concern was the height of the structure (34 m), due to which the lateral load imposed by wind was primary factor to work on compression and uplift of the piles. An innovative pile design is adopted to replace the conventional end bearing piles with friction piles thereby reducing the depth of penetration into deeper rock strata. Hence, friction piles of 6 m length are designed in a hexagonal pattern. The load carrying capacities of piles are calculated accordingly and the project was executed successfully. Such innovative design approach was resulted in overall reduction of the cost of the foundation system.