Monitoring pile construction impact near sheet pile quay walls: Some remarks

During structural renovation of sheet pile quay walls, monitoring is an essential tool to anticipate possible failure events. When monitoring displacements, the objective is to compare measured with expected values to detect possible reduction of the safety margin. This study presents findings from monitoring activities during execution of piles near an old sheet pile quay wall in the Port of Ravenna. Collected data include geodetic measurements of displacements of the top beam, an inclinometer profile and elongations from strain gages fixed on a horizontal anchor. The study highlights the influence of constructing a pile near the monitored quay wall; the possibility of predicting such effect by referring to analytical solutions and 3D finite element analysis is explored to provide a tool to anticipate anomalous behaviour of the structure and to minimize risk of brittle failures.