Geotechnical News • March 2015
39
THE GROUT LINE
The current version of the
Engineer-
ing and Design Manual EM 1110-2-
3506 Grouting Technology
is dated
20 January 1984 and supersedes EM
1110-2-3501 dated 01 July 1966 and
EM 1110-2-3503 dated 19 August
1963. It is comprised of 15 chapters,
4 appendices, and is 159 pages. The
intent of the manual was to provide
technical criteria and guidance for
civil works projects and included
information on procedures, materi-
als, and equipment used in grouting
applications that were considered to be
state of the art and standard practice at
the time of its publication. The manual
primarily addresses neat cementi-
tious suspension grouts and additives
describing their uses as an increment
of permanent construction such as
pre-treating foundations, as post-
construction remedial repair, or as an
increment of expedient construction
(examples being groundwater control
during construction or repair of a cof-
ferdam). The 1984 version covered the
purposes, geologic considerations for
civil works applications and provided
information on the grout materials
typically used to include cement types,
admixtures, chemical grouts, asphalt
grouts, and clay or bentonite grouts
and the equipment used in a grouting
program. The manual described the
various applications in which grout-
ing was performed and included water
retention structures, tunnels, shafts
and chambers, navigation structures,
building foundations and precision and
specialty grouting. Field procedures
were recommended for the drilling,
grouting, and pressure testing activi-
ties and the recommended pressures
to be used and methods for calculating
safe grouting pressures. The means
for administering the grouting work
as part of the general contract or as a
separate contract, methods of esti-
mating, and suggested methods of
record keeping and reporting was also
included in the document.
The USACE investigated computer
aided monitoring for grouting at a
project in the Buffalo District in 1975
and at the Nashville District’s Center
Hill Dam in 1984. The capabilities of
these attempts were rather limited and
lacked the ability to produce graphical
outputs. In 1997-1999 efforts led by
the Jacksonville District to utilize the
most current technology and standards
of practice to investigate the site of
the Portuguese Dam in Ponce, Puerto
Rico also resulted in the development
of project-specific computer programs
to track the micro-fine grouting data
from the foundation grouting program.
Around this time in 1998, the private
sector was implementing the use of
real-time automated data collection
and display technology at the Penn
Forest Dam in Pennsylvania along
with the use of balanced stable grouts,
and held a USACE Grouting Work-
shop at the site. Since 1998, USACE
has actively supported and embraced
the latest developments in grouting,
including: (1) design of grouting as an
engineered feature, (2) use of balanced
stable grout mixes, (3) advanced com-
puter monitoring, control, and analysis
for controlling grout injection, produc-
tion of project records, and perfor-
mance verification, and (4) Best Value
Selection for grouting projects. These
efforts were led by the Louisville
District and Headquarters through use
of these approaches in projects and by
organizing on-site USACE workshops
for dissemination of the information.
In 2000, the Patoka Lake Project,
where a grouted cutoff was con-
structed in karstic limestone between
the dam and the emergency spillway,
was the first USACE project to suc-
cessfully incorporate and integrate
all of these elements. Following the
success at Patoka Lake Dam, the same
general approach with substantially
more advanced and more powerful
computer technology was used effec-
tively in the Chicago McCook Reser-
voir test grouting program (Chicago
District), the Mississinewa Dam cutoff
wall pre-grouting program (Louisville
District), the sinkhole remediation
project and cutoff wall pre-grouting
project at Clearwater Dam (Little
Rock District), and the cutoff wall pre-
grouting project in karstic geology at
Wolf Creek Dam (Nashville District).
Many of the specific approaches and
techniques for best application of the
new technology were developed and
refined on these USACE projects.
Headquarters determined that an
update of the
Grouting Technology
Manual
was required and should
include all of the advances in equip-
ment, methodology, materials, and
technology that had been accom-
plished on these exemplary projects.
As a result, Gannett-Fleming was
contracted by the USACE to perform
this work. Two reviews were con-
ducted, each comprised of experienced
individuals from numerous USACE
Districts, and their comments were
incorporated into the draft copy dated
30 March 2009 and was submitted to
the HQUSACE. The task for comple-
tion and publication of the document
was then transferred to the USACE
Risk Management Center in June
2011 and was reviewed by Senior
Geotechnical Engineers and evaluated
based on a Dam Safety perspective.
In December of 2011 a meeting was
conducted with RMC and the original
reviewers to assess all comments, to
include experience gained from more
recent projects and to form a consen-
sus on the required revisions. The draft
was submitted to a Technical Editor in
January of 2012. The document was
provided to the HQUSACE Proponent
and it was decided that the docu-
ment was in need of further editing to
prepare it for compliance and sub-
mission for HQUSACE review, and
subsequent approval and publication.
The Director of the RMC determined
that after the document received a
second Technical Review followed
by an RMC final review, the final
draft would again be submitted to the
HQUSACE. This occurred in August
2014 and the document is currently
being processed through HQUSACE
and is awaiting signature.
The newly revised
EM 1110-2-3506
Grouting Technology
Engineering
