Precast Concrete Piles – Advantages & Disadvantages

Precast concrete piles are cast, cured and stored in a yard before they are installed in the field mostly by driving.

Advantages of Precast Concrete Piles

1. Reinforcement used in the pile is not liable to change its place or get disturbed
2. The defects in pile can be easily identified after the removal of forms, and these defects (such as presence of cavity or hole) can be repaired before driving the pile.
3. The cost of manufacturing will be less, as a large number of piles are manufactured at a time.
4. Precast concrete piles can be driven under water. If the subsoil water contains more sulphates, the concrete of cast in situ piles would not set. Thus precast concrete piles have added advantage in such a circumstance.
5. Precast concrete piles are highly resistant to biological and chemical actions of the sub soil.
6. Better quality control can be implemented as compared to bored cast in situ piles.
7. These piles can be constructed in various cross-sectional shapes such as circular, octagonal or square.

Disadvantages of Precast Concrete Piles

1. These piles are usually very heavy. So special equipments are required for handling and transportation.
2. Sufficient care must be taken at the time of transportation, otherwise piles may break.
3. For embedding these piles in field heavy pile driving equipment is required.
4. These piles are costly as extra reinforcement is required to bear handling and driving stresses.
5. The length of the pile is restricted since it depends upon the transport facility.
6. Once constructed, it is not possible to increase the length of the pile (as per the site demand)
7. If the pile is found to be too long, during driving, it is difficult and uneconomical to cut. Also cutting of extra length results in the wastage of material.
8. Driving these piles created a lot of noise pollution.

Reference

Building Construction by Dr. B.C. Punima