US851532A - Coffer-dam and caisson construction. - Google Patents

Description

. vi J No. 851,532. PATENTED APR. 23, 1907.

G. A. LB PEVRE.

COPPER DAM AND GAISSON CONSTRUCTION. urmouxon manna. 11, 1900.

WITNESSES ATTORNEY GEORGE A. LE FEVRE, OF PIERMONT, NEW YORK.

COFFER-DAIVI AND CAISSON CONSTRUCTION.

Specification of Letters Patent.

Patented April 23, 1907.

Application filed April 11 1906- Serial No. 311,190.

To aZZ whom, it may concern:

Be it known that I, GEORGE A. LE FEvRE,

of Piermont, in the county of Rockland and.

State of New York, have invented a new and Improved Coffer Dam and Caisson Construction, of which the following is a full, clear, and exact description.

My invention relates to improvements in that class of apparatus which is used in the sinking of cofferdams, caissons and the building of piers, piles and cement work generally.

The object of my invention is to produce a simple device which can be easily sunk in sections, which is made up mainly of commercial flat and angle iron, and which has facilities for going accurately and easily to place.

My invention is also intended to produce, when the parts of the structure are sunk, a caisson or cofferdam which is braced by an internal system which prevents collapse or accidents and which leaves a large central opening for a hoistway and for work generally.

My invention is also intended to produce a structure of this character which can be very easily placed and which can be easily removed as soon as the cement filling is set.

To these ends my invention consists of certain features of construction and combinations of parts which will be hereinafter described and claimed.

Reference is to be had to the accompanying drawings forming a part of this specification in which similar letters and figures of reference indicate corresponding parts in all the views.

Figure 1 is a plan view of an open caisson or cofferdamshowing my construction; Fig. 2 is a vertical section on the line 22 of Fig. 1 Fig. 3 is an enlarged detail view showing a plate-pile portion of the apparatus with attached auxiliary angle-iron share and water supply pipes; Fig. 4 is a detail side elevation showing how two end-abutting plates may be connected together; Fig. 5 is a plan view of a section of cofferdam suitable for use in building a sea wall Fig. 6 is a detail plan showing how the endof the sea wall section can be left; and Fig. 7 is an enlarged detail plan view of abutting sections of the wall, and shows the guiding means used in driving the plates.

In carrying out my invention I use a series of flat plates 10 preferably of ordinary commercial iron, and the structure built up can be either rectangular as shown, or it can be circular in cross section. In makin a rectangular structure, I use iron angle p ates 11 at the corners and the several plates are connected together at the edges by iron joint strips 12, and to provide for easy connections each plate 10 is slotted near one edge as shown at 13, and provided with bolt holes 14 at the opposite edge. The joint strips 12 are fastened to opposite faces of the plate 10 at its inner or right-hand edge by bolts passing through the plate holes 1 1, and both strips 12 project beyond said inner edge of the plate to form a groove to receive the left-hand outer edge of the plate 10 last driven. The lower ends of the strips 12 are inclined or chamfered at 12, and these inclines crowd the point and lower part of the plate 10 being driven closely to the left-hand edge of the plate last driven. This action of the inclined joint strip ends 12"-, is supplemented by like but more powerful action of an inclined angle-iron share 17 which is bolted to the inner face of the plate 10 some distance above its point or above said ends 12 of the strips 12. To facilitate direct driving or hydraulic sinking of the plates their lower ends may be chamfered or sharpened as shown at'lO in Figs. 2 and 3 of the drawings. To assist in guiding the descending plates 10, and further to provide for convenient attachment of internal cross-braces hereinafter mentioned, vertically ranging angle-irons 18 are bolted to the inner faces of the plates 10 prior to driving or sinking them to form a caisson or dam.

In sinking the plates 10 to form a caisson or coflerdam, a plate guide is employed. This guide is preferably made of metal and mainly in the form of a rectangular open loop having opposite sides spaced apart for a distance exceeding the thickness of the plates 1.0 and their attached joint strips 12, share 17, brace-connecting irons 18, and pipes which may also be attached as hereinafter described for hydraulically sinking the plates. The guide loop has at one end a groove 15*, receiving the outer left-hand edge of the plate 10 being driven, and at the opposite end of the loop the sides of the guide are contracted at 16 to permit bolting of the guide to the plate 10 last driven.

In Fig. 7 of the drawings, the guide 15 is shown bolted at 16 to the plate 10 last driven, and the plate 10 being driven is shown with its fixed joint plates 12, 12, embracing the edge of the driven plate while the opposite edge of the plate being driven runs in the groove 15 of the guide. As the plate 10 is being driven or sunk, the inclined ends 12 of its joint strips 12, and more especially the inclined face of the share 17, offer resistance to the sand or silt entered by the plate and powerfully force its entire right-hand edge next the strips 12 over tightly to the lefthand edge of the last driven'plate 10, notwithstanding possible irregular application of the force used in driving or sinking the plate. When the plate is fully down, bolts may be easily applied at the strips 12 and through the slots 13 of the prior driven plate to secure the last two adjoining driven plates together, whereupon the guide 15 is unfastened and then is fastened to the last plate just driven to guide the neXt plate to be driven; and so on, for any required number of plates.

After the rectangular structure shown in Figs. 1 and 5 is formed and as it is sunk, angle iron braces 19 may be extended across the caisson or cofferdam and bolted to the angles 18 and by using longer and shorter braces as desired the hoistway 20 can be formed which will be Tree and clear. This arrangement is much safer than it is to use timbers as gener ally employed, because the braces cannot slip and moreover they take up little room and can be easily removed. Also the braces act to prevent the wall of the structure from expanding as well as collapsing. Further, as the structure is sunk the lower braces can be used to carry ballast and the ballast can also be loaded on higher up if need be. The arrangement likewise provides for an easy and safe filling of the caisson and the successive braces can be taken away as the cement rises without any danger to the structure and by taking out the bolts from the strips 12, the plates 10 with attached parts 17, 18, are left free and can be easily removed. The plates, besides being driven can be easily sunk by means of water jets and to this end a plate 10 can have, on the outside, a water pipe 21, which is held in a keeper 22 and has branch pipes 22 extending through keepers 23 to points near the lower edge of theplate. The water is forced through the pipe and branch pipe under pressure and it removes the silt, sand, dirt, etc. and permits the plate to readily sink to place. If the plates are to be driven to considerable depth they can be arranged vertically one above the other and with their ends abutting, as in Fig. 4C, and where this is done, the adjacent plates can be provided with dovetail slots or key ways 24 to receive dovetail keys 25, and these parts can be covered by plates 26 to prevent leakage after said face-plates 26 are bolted to opposite ends of the keys and to the two endabutting plates 10, 10. Another object of this double-dovetail plate joint is to enable the lower plate or plates to be raised when a lifting strain is applied to the plate above.

Instead of using the angles 11, the flat plates can be used and if the strips 12 are slightly curved, the structure can be made circular in cross section instead of rectangular.

In Figs. 5 and 6 I have shown the structure as adapted to form a sea wall and where this is done the end plates can be left of the conformation shown at the right-hand in Fig. 6, and then when the work is continued the new wall will dovetail ormatch into the old. This structure also provides for sand or paper joints to be left between the several sections to provide for longitudinal expansion of the wall.

From the foregoing description, it will be seen that I thus provide a very simple and efficient means of performing sub foundation work or sub aqueous work and that the plates forming the main portion of the structure can be easily removed after the cofferdam or caisson is filled.

WVhere the structure is provided with water pipe or pipes as shown in Fig. 3 and the hard pan or hard bottom is irregular, cement can be pumped through the pipe 21 when the bottom is reached, and the cement will fill in the inequalities at the bottom of the structure and will, as soon as it sets, effectively prevent leakage around the bottom.

In the description where I have referred to bolts I wish it understood that I would generally use stud bolts and that instead of having them go through to the outside and have nuts on them, the outer plates will be tapped so that the bolts are passed through the inner joint strips 12 and the slots and holes 13, 14 of the plates 10, 11, or through the angleirons 18, and are screwed into tapped holes in the outer strips 12, or in the plates 10, 11, and do not project beyond said strips or plates. This leaves the outer surface of the caisson 0r dam unobstructed by projecting boltheads or ends.

Having thus fully described my invention, I claim as new and desire to secure by Letters Patent,

1. A structure such as described, comprising a series of plates, oint strips fixed to opposite faces of the plates at one edge thereof and adapted to overlap the meeting edge of the last driven plate, and an inclined sharelike structure fastened to each plate at a distance from its point and adapted to edgewise force the plate being driven against the plate last driven.

2. A structure such as described, comprising a series of plates, joint strips having laterally inclined forward ends and fixed to opposite faces of the plates at one edge thereof and adapted to overlap the meeting edge of the plate last driven, and an inclined share fastened to each plate at a distance from its point and co-operating with the inclined ends of the joint strips to edgewise force the plate being driven against the plate last driven.

3. In a structure such as described, the combination with a plate adapted to be sunk into the earth, of an inclined angle-iron share fixed to the plate at a distance from its point.

4. A structure such as described for caissons or cofl'erdams, comprising a series of flat plates and angle plates forming the sides and corners of the structure, overlapping joint. strips fixed to the faces of the plates to cover the oints, and cross-braces inside the structure.

5. A structure such as described for caissons or co'l'l erdams, coin arising a series of flat plates and angle plates orining the sides and corners of the structure, overlapping joint strips fixed to the faces of the plates to cover the joints, angle-iron supports fastened vertically to the inner sides of the plates, and cross-braces fixed to said angle-iron supports.

6. A caisson wall plate having j oint-lap ping strips fixed to its opposite faces at one edge and having vertical bolt receiving slots at its opposite edge.

7. A caisson Wall plate having joint-lapping strips 12 made With inclined ends 12' i and fnxed to its opposite faces at one edge, an

adjacent inclined share 17 fixed to the plate at some distance from its point, and a vertical brace-supporting angle-iron 1S fixed to the inner face of the plate.

S. A caisson Wall plate having joint-lapping strips 12 fixed to its opposite faces at one edge, an adjacent inclined share 17 lixed to the plate at some distance from its point, and attached fluid supply pipes.

9. A caisson wall plate having joint-lapping strips 12 provided with inclined ends 12, and fixed to its opposite faces at one edge, an adjacent inclined share 17 i'med to the plate at some distance from its point, and attached fluid supply pipes.

10. In a structure such as described, the combination with a wall plate, of a guide in the form of an open loop having one end reduced for attachment to a driven plate and having a groove at its other end to receive and guide the outer edge of an adjacent plate to be driven.

11. In a structure such as described, the combination with a driven caisson wall plate and an adjacent undriven plate having lined joint strips projecting at its inner edge to overlap the driven plate, of a guide in the form of an open loop having one end reduced for attachment to the driven. plate and having a groove at its other end receiving the outer edge of the plate being driven While the inner edge of said plate is guided on the prior driven plate by the oint strips.

GEORGE A. LE FEVHF.

\Vitnesses:

\VARREN B. HUTonrNsoN, J. C. BAUTA.

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