Pier Foundation of Railway Bridge with Long Raked or Vertical Piles

This paper intends to discuss the design aspects of the foundations of bridge piers with long piles, with particular reference to the case of the railway bridge over the Volta River in Ghana, designed for both conditions and finally built with four/six long raked piles for the four piers in water. Due to the significant length of the foundation piles, raked piles are more effective and efficient than vertical piles to take the high seismic and train horizontal loads and to satisfy the requirements of the bridge-track interaction analysis. The design with vertical piles requires a significant increase of foundation quantities. The lateral load test between piers with raked piles is a very effective method to check the compressive/tensile piles’ capacity and the actual foundation horizontal displacement and stiffness, in order to confirm the bridge-track interaction analysis.