Steel H Piles (Classic Reprint)

The use of steel bearing piles made from structural shapes started about 1899, although the use of metal piles, both cast-iron and wroughtiron, dates back over 85 years. The earliest steel piles were in the form of I-beams and fabricated sections made from plates and angles. These steel bearing piles were used first in theM iddle Western States in what proved to be a successful effort to meet the serious problem caused by the undermining of bridge piers and abutments on pile foundations in compact gravel and sand. These soil conditions limited the depth to which piles other than steel could be driven. It was demonstrated that steel piles could withstand extremely hard driving and could penetrate to depths safely below the scouring action of streams. The steel piles also solved another serious problem by providing the necessary resistance to damage from ice floes. A typical instance of such a condition was the difficulty in providing safe and substantial bridge crossings along the Platte River, inN ebraska. This river is wide but shallow and has an extensive drainage area. Because of these characteristics, early spring thaws cause ice floes to develop out of all proportion to the discharge capacity of the stream. At such times, flooding of the river opens new channels by a violent scouring action, which in many cases undermines the bridge structures. The only salvation for such structures was the development of foundation piles capable of being driven well below the possible scour level. In this instance, I-beams and fabricated steel piles provided the only solution. After 1908, when Bethlehem Steel rolled the first steel H-column section in this country, the H-section rapidly became recognized as ideally suited for use as piling. The early use of steel piles, primarily as a means of combatting stream scour and resisting attacks from floating ice, also demons
(Typographical errors above are due to OCR software and don't occur in the book.)