CHALLENGES IN THE PAST AND FOR THE FUTURE OF DESIGN AND INSTALLATION TECHNOLOGIES ON STEEL PIPE PILES IN JAPAN

Large amount of steel pipe piles have been used for port facility, road-bridge and building foundation to date in Japan, since adopted for the pier structure at Shiogama Port in 1954. Their strength, toughness, resistivity against impact force stimulated pile drivers growing in size to meet the demand for rapid economic growth in Japan. After environmental pollution problem came up as social issues in 1960’s, bored steel pipe pile methods were developed to solve noise and ground vibration problem, followed by composite piles with steel pipe pile and soil-cement, large bearing capacity piles with enlarged foot protection, large sized screw piles and hydraulic press-in methods combined with direct rotation coming into practical use to comply with diversified requirement from construction market. Development of pile installation methods have affected technical progresses in design and structural engineering mutually. The present paper describes challenges of installation and design technologies on steel pipe piles in the past and recent years. It also refers to assignments for future development of the technology.