Author(s)

M. Danieli, J. Bloch, M. Cohen & E. Cohen

Abstract

In the middle of January 2006, a very large settlement of the south-eastern corner of a residential building in the southern part of Tel Aviv occurred which resulted in considerable inclination of the building. Because of the danger that the whole building will collapse, a part of the building has been demolished. The foundations of the building, constructed at 1962, were concrete piles cast in clay. The failure of the foundations was the direct reason for the sinking and inclination of the building. The bearing capacities of the piles were lower than the design loads, but despite this the building survived for more than 40 years. This presentation will include: location of the buildings; description of the structure; the foundations; the topographic and land-use changes; the reduction of soil capacity and failure details. Keywords: residential building, structure, foundations, pile, topography, soil capacity, reduction, sinking, inclination, failure, demolish. 1 Introduction The accelerated urban development and the extensive construction works that took place in Israel during the second half of the 20th century, brought to a vast change in land use and, as a result, a severe deterioration of the hydrological and mechanical soil status. Wide areas that were traditionally used as an agricultural land turned into large cities with residential spaces and other accompanied infrastructure like railways highways and industrial zones. Without a careful design, changes in topography and intensive excavation causing brutal violation of the natural equilibrium. In the following case, rapid, non-standard construction of condominiums in the southern part of Tel Aviv brought to a

Keywords

residential building, structure, foundations, pile, topography, soil capacity, reduction, sinking, inclination, failure, demolish.