How Can You Deal with Unwanted Groundwater at a Construction Site?
Posted on: 15 June 2022
If you plan a major construction project, one of the first things you need to do is analyse the soil in that area. You will certainly want to know what you're dealing with immediately below the planned structure so you can work safely and ensure strong foundations. However, you will also need to assess the risk of unwanted water in the area. As this type of threat is prevalent, you will probably need a specific solution to keep such unwanted water at bay, but what is the best approach?
Dealing with Unwanted Water
An underground water table is quite commonplace in most potential building sites, but you need to assess the scale of the challenge. Water may move from one point to another with relative ease if the soil beneath is quite coarse or may just seep if the soil has a claylike consistency.
Compromising Your Work
If you do not take action, this water will invariably flow out of the soil surrounding your excavation point and will certainly compromise your construction activities. It will make it very difficult to do your work and quite dangerous for the personnel involved, so you need to introduce a dewatering system.
Using a Wellpoint Dewatering System
One of the most common solutions is a wellpoint dewatering system. This is able to deal with a wide variety of soils, whether coarse or fine, with a uniform consistency or stratified.
Installing Your Wellpoints
You will typically need to install several different wellpoints to an adequate depth for your specific needs. Determine exactly where the water is so that you can add wellpoints to deal with the threat in the immediate vicinity. With larger sites, you may need header pipes and pumps in place as well to deal with potentially higher flow rates.
Considering Other Factors
Don't forget to take into account other factors. For example, could your system be compromised if there is significantly elevated run-off following a storm? Also, as you may be adjusting the groundwater level, could this cause issues with any nearby structures? This situation may cause the soil beneath the structure to shift, compromising its foundation.
Getting Expert Insight
As you can see, there's a lot of planning to consider before you get to installation. This is why you should work with experts in wellpoint dewatering systems, so they can analyse the soil, determine the correct approach and help you to get everything set up.
For more information on wellpoint dewatering systems, contact a professional near you.
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