Capitol Visitor Center Diaphragm Wall

By Guido Pellegrino, Vice-President, Nicholson Construction Company and

Brian O’Gara, Business Development Coordinator, Nicholson Construction Company

THIS PROJECT RECEIVED A SPECIAL RECOGNITION AWARD IN THE

JUDGING FOR THE DFI OUTSTANDING PROJECT AWARD 2004

CAPITOL VISITOR CENTER PROJECT OVERVIEW CVC DIAPHRAGM WALL DESIGN CONSIDERATIONS

The U.S. Capitol is undergoing its largest expansion The Capitol is founded on spread footings placed on
since 1800, the year that Congress gathered in the dense water bearing granular and cohesive soils. A
building’s first completed section. Faced with the need to continuous cut-off by concrete diaphragm wall and jet
make the building more accessible, comfortable, secure, grouting surrounding the entire perimeter of the new
and educational for its 3 million annual visitors, Congress addition were selected to limit settlement from dewatering
directed the Architect of the Capitol to design and during excavation and control movements of the Capitol’s
construct a new visitor center. Major construction began in foundations.
summer 2002 and is on pace for completion in spring The project documents provided a design that included
2006. the wall reinforcement and a “top-first” lateral support and
The Capitol Visitor Center (CVC), located construction sequence. The construction sequence
underground below the East Capitol grounds, contains involved the installation of the concrete diaphragm wall
580,000 square feet (53,880 m2) of floor space on three and drilled shafts for the interior steel building columns
levels. By comparison, the Capitol Building encompasses from the existing grade, the excavation of the first lift, and
775,000 s.f. (72,000 m2) The CVC project footprint the erection of the top steel frame at plaza level prior to
covers 193,000 s.f. (17,930 m2) – larger than the Capitol any substantial excavation. The mass excavation was
itself whose footprint is 175,000 s.f. (16,260 m2) The proposed to take place below the deck and around the steel
CVC structure reaches depths in excess of 50 feet (15 m) columns, while the walls were secured by up to 4 rows of
below ground. A two-level auditorium will extend to the anchors for lateral support.
east of the plaza. A service tunnel will extend to the In collaboration with Centex and GEI Consultants of
northwest of the CVC. The new building will also include Winchester, Massachusetts, Nicholson conceived and
space for exhibits, food service, two orientation theaters, proposed a revised construction sequence that allowed for
gift shops, security, mechanical facilities, storage, and conventional “bottom-up” construction. This called for
much needed space for the House and Senate. drilled shaft construction from the base of the excavation,
The CVC is being built in two separate contracts. The conventional building column erection, excavation and
first major construction contract called “Sequence 1 – anchor work unimpeded by a “forest” of pre-installed
Foundation/Structure” involved the installation of the columns, and overall improved schedule and safety.
excavation support and foundation system by diaphragm The alternate construction sequence was evaluated
(slurry) wall and caissons, mass excavation, portions of using geotechnical modeling to demonstrate acceptable
site utility work, completion of the roof slab and floors, performance. In cooperation with the project geotechnical
and construction of a new service tunnel. Sequence 2, engineer, Weidlinger Associates of Cambridge, MA,
involves the build-out and finishes. Nicholson and GEI developed a fast track temporary
The Architect of the Capitol, the entity responsible to design development and review program to confirm that
the United States Congress for the maintenance, operation, the proposed construction sequence satisfied the contract
development, and preservation of the United States Capitol performance requirements. The structural analyses of the
Complex, awarded Sequence 1 to Centex Construction support system were performed using both beam-on-elastic
Company of Fairfax, Virginia. As part of the contract, foundations (BEF) and finite element (FE) models. The
Nicholson Construction Company, based in Pittsburgh, BEF program (WALLAP, 1997) was used for the
Pennsylvania, was awarded the subcontract to construct structural design of the wall system. Two FE models
the diaphragm wall, the jet grouting water cut-off, and the (PLAXIS, 1998) were run to verify the BEF results, and to
lateral support system. provide ground deformation predictions to compare to
contract requirements. Soil properties were selected based During the duration of diaphragm wall installation and
on geotechnical laboratory testing, as well as published mass excavation, the building and the surrounding ground
values from test section case histories in the Washington, were closely monitored to detect any deflection or
D.C. area. movement. A dense array of monitoring points,
The project’s primary design concern was the control inclinometers, piezometers, and seismographs were
and minimization of the Capitol’s movements. The continuously monitored to assess the ground response to
diaphragm wall foundation was designed to achieve this the various construction activities, while the building itself
goal and to act as a permanent water cut-off and structural was monitored by dedicated instrumentation.
wall for the three-level underground structure. Particular In order to maintain the strict tolerance requirement
consideration was given to the fact that the Capitol’s and achieve the high productivity in the granular terrace
foundations are within two feet (600mm) of the wall in deposits as well as in the dense Potomac formation,
some locations. Nicholson selected hydraulic slurry buckets with lengths
of 10 feet. Two different types of digging equipment
DIAPHRAGM WALL CONSTRUCTION configuration were utilized to negotiate the tight corners
and perimeter geometry: conventional cable-hung
Prior to the beginning of any heavy construction, the hydraulic bucket mounted on a Liebherr 853 HD and a
project team completed several critical preparatory tasks, telescopic kelly carried by a Link-Belt 418. Upon
including relocating all utilities within the project completion of diaphragm wall construction, over 14,000
footprint, implementing a comprehensive tree protection cubic yards (10,700 m3) of structural concrete and 1,500
plan, preserving historic elements, and establishing tons (1,360 tonnes) of epoxy-coated structural steel were
alternate visitor screening facilities. placed.
Diaphragm wall construction commenced in July 2002
and was completed by May 2003. A total of 125
diaphragm wall panels, extending to depths up to 80 feet
(24.4m) were installed.
The diaphragm wall is 32 inches (813mm) thick and
heavily reinforced by structural steel, epoxy coated for
corrosion protection. Single panel cages weighed up to 23
tons (21 tonnes). Particular care was required when setting
the heavy and long steel cages within inches of the
façade’s historic stone work. In order to minimize the
ground movement risk, the panels adjacent to the building
foundation were limited to 10 feet (3m) in length; in areas
away from the building, panel lengths reached 26 feet.
(8m) The total perimeter of the diaphragm wall is 2,400
feet (732m), with a total surface area of 130,000 square
feet (12,077 m2).

Cable-Hung Hydraulic Bucket

for Diaphragm Wall Excavation
Placing the Steel Cage in Close Proximity
to the East Façade
 During the mass excavation of the CVC site, building surcharges used in the models. Overall, the wall
Nicholson installed over 500 temporary anchors, with movements for the entire site are less than predicted, even
capacities up to 375 kips (1,668 kN). The anchors were in sections where there are no building surcharges. It
installed using the duplex drilling method to minimize should be noted that in certain critical areas, the
ground disturbance and loss under the building installation of the upper tier of anchors took place in
foundations. A tri-dimensional model of the anchor “slots” sequentially excavated to increase movement
configuration was developed to avoid reciprocal control.
interferences in the inside corner areas. Internal steel
bracing was also used in limited areas. The anchors were
progressively detensioned as the construction of the
concrete slabs and floors proceeded.

Anchor Installation Below the

US Capitol Foundation Wall Movement Comparison

One of the unique challenges of this project was the JET GROUTING
extremely tight security measures under which all
construction activities took place. All workers were subject Nicholson installed 380 linear feet (116m) of jet grout
to background checking, security screening on a daily wall at the Senate tunnel and central stairs for the
basis, all delivery trucks were also x-rayed and inspected. extension of water cut-off around and below existing
structures. To form the deep cut-off connections,
DIAPHRAGM WALL PERFORMANCE Nicholson utilized a mono-directional jet grouting
technique using a cement-bentonite grout mix. The mono-
The predicted deflection of the slurry wall for the BEF directional jetting produced intersecting flat panels of
and FE model analyses, as well as inclinometer data for cement-bentonite grout, providing the required cut-off to a
the most heavily loaded design sections were graphically depth of approximately 75 feet (23m). This method
represented. The FE model included the simulation of allowed the continuous grout treatment of a relatively wide
tieback anchors within the soil mass. The difference area with a substantial schedule improvement as compared
between the movements predicted by the BEF model and to installing conventional jet grout columns. The
the larger movements predicted by the FE model is performance of the jet grouting wall was demonstrated in a
essentially the free field movement behind the anchor full-scale pre-production permeability test program.
zones of the tiebacks. In other words, the BEF and FE Circular jet grout columns were installed for the
model had good agreement in predicting the local structural connections between the diaphragm wall and the
movement of the wall. The actual wall movement is less existing structures for support of excavation and ground
than the values predicted by both models. This behavior is water control. For these structural columns, a neat water-
likely the result of the combination of conservative cement grout was utilized, resulting in higher strength. The
modulus values for the soils, and conservative estimates of effectiveness of the jet grouting parameters selected by the
contractor was confirmed by the installation of a test the contractor resulted in substantial savings in terms of
column cluster. schedule and overall cost to the project, while satisfying all
Jet grouting was also used to overcome an unforeseen the performance requirements and objectives of the
condition at the site. During the excavation of the slurry modified top-down approach prescribed in the original
wall against the US Capitol foundation, an ancient stone contract documents. Also, the proposed conventional
well was encountered; this occurrence caused loss of slurry bottom-up construction method allowed for a safer
during the excavation and work stoppage. The project construction and minimized the reworks.
team quickly reacted to this new condition devising the The foundation work, performed by DFI Member
installation of a series of small diameter columns to protect Nicholson Construction Company, won the prestigious
the building granite block foundations. Subsequently, the 2004 Washington Building Congress Craftsmanship
entire area affected by the well was consolidated by Award, aimed at recognizing quality in construction.
double-fluid jet grouting utilizing a low-strength cement
and bentonite grout. Eventually the diaphragm wall
installation resumed through the consolidated obstruction
and was completed successfully.

Erection of the First Steel Column

PROJECT TEAM
• Owner – The Architect of the Capitol
Installation of Structural Connections • General Contractor - Centex Construction Company
by Jet Grouting • Architect - RTKL
• Geotechnical Engineer - Weidlinger Associates, Inc.
CONCLUSIONS • Foundation Contractor - Nicholson Construction
Company
As this article goes to press, the foundation and civil • Nicholson’s Design Engineer - GEI Consultants, Inc.
work is nearly finished and the fit-out of the CVC is in full
swing. The alternative construction sequence proposed by