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Geotechnical News • December 2012
41
THE GROUT LINE
Paolo Gazzarrini
Overture
29th edition of the Grout Line, and for
this issue, I have something a bit dif-
ferent to share with you, outside of the
“real” grouting industry.
We will talk about micropiles, mainly
regarding the 11th International Soci-
ety for Micropiles (ISM) Workshop
held in Milano (Italy) this past month
of October.
The topic is not completely outside
of the Grout Line’s “scope of work”
considering that grouting is a very
important part of the execution of a
micropile, giving the adequate bond
between the rock/soil and the struc-
tural element.
I would like to remind the “few” (I
trust) people who don’t know what
the ISM is, that the International
Society for Micropiles, is “a consor-
tium of international representatives
involved in the design, construction,
research/development and instruction/
promotion of micropile technology.
ISM seeks to provide an international
forum for debate, advice, problem-
solving and support to micropile spe-
cialists and non-specialists throughout
the world”.
This definition was transcribed from
ISM’s web page:
I recommend, if anyone is interested
in the topic, that you visit the web
page. You will find a lot of literature
about micropiles, with very interesting
information, articles and other refer-
ences.
The current Chair of the ISM is
Allen Cadden, P.E., D.GE, Principal,
Director of Strategic Development at
Schnabel Engineering -
. Other key people
in the ISM organization are ISM Tech-
nical Leads Mary Ellen C. Bruce, P.E.,
D.GE,Technical Activities Manager
for the Deep Foundations Institute
and Dr. Antonio
Marinucci, P.E., MBA, Director of
Operations for the ADSC: the Inter-
national Association of Foundation
Drilling,
).
They prepared the following article for
this issue of Grout Line.
The second article I would like to
present to you is .... mine! (Sorry
about that, and it is only the second
time in more than 6 years that I am
using my Grout Line department to
bother you with my experiences! ).
I presented this paper at the previ-
ously mentioned workshop and I have
received permission from ISM to
reproduce it here. The topic is related
to the use of continuous monitoring
and recording during micropile/anchor
tension/compression tests that I carried
out in Vancouver-Canada. As some
of you know my “maniac passion” in
improving QA/QC in our industry is
quite obsessive. I hope you will read
the following article carefully and
with interest and I will be happy and
curious to know whether any of you
have had similar experiences, during
your testing, to share. Comments are
very welcome!
Last but not least Merry Christmas to
everybody and a marvelous 2013 to
you and your families!
ISM-ADSC-DFI cooperative
alliance
11th International Workshop on
Micropiles
The International Society for Micro-
piles (ISM) held their 11th interna-
tional workshop on micropiles in
Milan, Italy in October. The workshop
marked the 60th anniversary of the
pali radici
(root pile) technology
developed in Italy and was the first
event organized under the ISM-
ADSC-DFI cooperative alliance
established in 2012. Over 60 delegates
from 16 countries participated in the
technical presentations and lively
discussion on all aspects of micropile
technology. The workshop coincided
with the GeoFluid 2012, the annual
small diameter drilling exhibition held
in Piacenza, Italy approximately 80
km south of Milan.
In addition to long-standing ISM
delegates from the USA, Canada,
Finland, UK, Germany, Australia and
Austria, new delegates from Italy,
Saudi Arabia, Israel, Nigeria, Brazil,
the Netherlands, Chile, Poland, Nor-
way, and Estonia joined the workshop.
Technical sessions covered cultural
and regional applications, equipment
and testing innovations, research
initiatives, successful and challenging
case histories, and slope stabilization
and foundation support applications.
Researchers from around the world
discussed ongoing field, labora-
tory, and numerical analyses aimed
at advancing the use of groups and
networks of micropiles for a variety of
applications.
ISM gratefully acknowledges the sup-
port and generosity of the workshop’s
host sponsor, Soilmec S.p.A., and
other workshop sponsors. A full listing
of workshop sponsors is provided on
ISM’s website at
The international technical pro-
gram committee members included
Allen Cadden (USA), Dr. Changho
Choi (Korea), Allan Herse (Australia),
Dr. Antonio Marinucci (USA), Fed-