15
Proposed Three (3)- storey Bulding
MSU Marawi City, Lanao del Sur
Lancaster Development Corporation
Report No. RDR2024-22
PLATE LOAD TEST & SOIL INVESTIGATION
of
PROPOSED THREE (3)-STOREY BUILDING
Lancaster Development Corporation
MR. FARLEY SY
MSU, Marawi City, Lanao de Sur
Cagayan de Oro City, Misamis Oriental 9000
Submitted to :
PREPARED BY:
Architect
APPROVED BY:
E N GR. JAMAE L R. MACARAMB O N
C IVIL EN G IN EER
May 7, 2024
Engr. ROMMEL D. RAFISURA,PPO Office, Xavier University- Ateneo de Cagayan, Corrales Avenue, Cagayan de Oro City 9000
1
Proposed Three (3)- storey Bulding
MSU Marawi City, Lanao del Sur
Lancaster Development Corporation
Report No. RDR2024-22
May 7, 2024
LANCASTER DEVELOPMENT CORPORATION
South Corporate Plaza Tower 2,
Bonifacio Global City,
Taguig, Metro Manila
Thru: Mr. Cristian Ambo
RE: Plate Load Test & Soil Investigation Report
We take pleasure in submitting to you the report on soil investigation for the Proposed Three
(3)-storey building located at MSU, Mrawi City, Lanao del Sur.
The report describes design parameters and soil properties for the site. It is hoped that results
presented in this report will provide all the information required for the design of foundations for
the proposed Structure. Since a plate load test is of short duration, consolidation settlements
cannot be predicted.
Yours Faithfully,
ENGR. ROMMEL D. RAFISURA, McivEng
Consulting Geotechnical/ Structural Engineer
PRC # 075326
Valid 2025
PTR # 5727568
Issued on 01.12.2024
Issued at CDOC
TIN # 186-383-721
Approved by:
E N GR. JAMAE L R. MACARAMB O N
C IVIL EN G IN EER
Engr. ROMMEL D. RAFISURA,PPO Office, Xavier University- Ateneo de Cagayan, Corrales Avenue, Cagayan de Oro City 9000
2
Proposed Three (3)- storey Bulding
MSU Marawi City, Lanao del Sur
Lancaster Development Corporation
Report No. RDR2024-22
I. INTRODUCTION
In the general sense of Engineering, soil is defined as the uncemented aggregate of mineral grains and
decayed organic matter ( solid particles ) along with the liquid grains and gas that occupy the empty
spaces between the solid particles. Solid is used as a construction material in various civil engineering
projects, and it supports structural foundations.
Soils that supports foundations of various shapes are subjected to net stress increases. This net
increase in soils depends on the load per unit area to which the foundation is subjected, the depth
below the foundation at which the stress estimation is desired, and other factors.
Foundation settlement be assessed as accurately as possible for every structure which includes the
building. In many cases settlement criteria will control the allowable bearing capacity of soil, however
base shear in some cases dictates the bearing capacity to be used.
With regards to settlement considered as factor, most building codes requires that the foundation should
not undergo settlements of more than one inch ( 24.4 mm ). In some cases, it is desirable to conduct
PLATE LOAD TEST to determine the soil bearing capacity of foundations based on settlements.
This Plate Load Test which is indeed the subject of this undertakings would somehow give information to
the designer on the approximate soil bearing capacity where the building be erected.
There are some instances where the soil bearing pressure to be used in the design will be based on
experience and or from the construction handbook depending on the type of soils such as clayey, sandy,
silty, etc.. These values are oftentimes termed as PRESUMPTIVE PRESSURES.
The plate load test mentioned above however bears itself some loopholes. One of the significant is the
short duration of loading where consolidation settlements are usually cannot be predicted. Another one
is, if the test is performed on a material overlaying a saturated compressible stratum, the test may give
highly misleading information.
In view of the resulting ultimate bearing capacity from the plate load test being considered only
approximate, factors could applied based upon the engineering judgment of the one who conducts the
test considering all the possible factors that influence the reliability and efficiency of the test.
Generally, the factor of safety is between 2 to 3 is used to determine the allowable bearing pressure
from the ultimate bearing pressure obtained from the test.
This further is not overly conservative but rather takes into account at least the following:
1. Magnitude of damaged (loss of life, property and lawsuits) if a failure results.
2. Relative cost of increasing or decreasing the value of the factor of safety.
3. Relative change in probability of failure by changing the value of the factor of safety.
4. Reliability of soil data.
5. Changes in soil properties from construction operations, and later from any other causes.
6. Accuracy of currently used design/ analysis methods
Eventually, it is however, recommended to conduct through soil exploration such as SPT, CPT, etc. To be
more exact on the determination of the soil bearing capacity for both shallow and deep foundations.
Engr. ROMMEL D. RAFISURA,PPO Office, Xavier University- Ateneo de Cagayan, Corrales Avenue, Cagayan de Oro City
3
Proposed Three (3)- storey Bulding
MSU Marawi City, Lanao del Sur
Lancaster Development Corporation
Report No. RDR2024-22
II. SCOPE OF INVESTIGATION
This Plate Load Test will be conducted within the building layout as shown in the TEST PIT LOCATION .
There will be three (3) pits to be excavated and tested.
This test will be done in the field and no other subsequent laboratory testings shall be performed. Only
the ultimate soil bearing capacity shall be determine in this tests.
Accordingly, the ultimate soil bearing capacity to be determined will be based on settlement; specifically
one ( 1 ) inch or 25.4 mm. The duration of loading will be arbitrarily chosen to be two hours per load
increment until the 25.4 mm. settlement will be reached.
Subsurface exploration by borings will no longer be conducted. And the resulting approximate allowable
soil bearing capacity will be used in the design of the foundation.
The report incorporates recommendations for the allowable soil pressure to be adopted for the
proposed Structure. The investigation work was undertaken at the site on May 5, 2024.
TYPICAL SET-UP FOR GRAVITY LOADING PLATFORM
Engr. ROMMEL D. RAFISURA,PPO Office, Xavier University- Ateneo de Cagayan, Corrales Avenue, Cagayan de Oro City
4
Proposed Three (3)- storey Bulding
MSU Marawi City, Lanao del Sur
Lancaster Development Corporation
Report No. RDR2024-22
III. THEORIES & PRINCIPLE
American Standard for Testing Materials (ASTM) has attempted to standardize the conduct of the Plate
Load Test under the designation ASTM D 1194. An excerpt from part 19 ASTM Book of standard:
1. Decide on the type of load application, ad if it is to be a reaction piles, they should be driven first to
avoid excessive vibration and loosening of the soil in the excavation where the load test will be
performed.
2. Excavate a pit to the depth the test is to be performed. The test pit should be at least four times as
wide as the plate and to the depth the foundation is to be placed. If it is specified that two sizes of
plates are to used for the test, the pit should be large enough so that there is an available spacing
between tests of 3D of the largest plate.
3. A load is placed on the plate and settlements are recorded from a dial gage accurate to
0.25mm.Observations on a load increment should be taken until the rate of settlement is beyond the
capacity of the dial gage. Load increments should be approximately one fifth of the estimate bearing
capacity of the soil. Time intervals of loading should not be less than one (1) hour and should be
approximately of the same duration for all the load increment. Using the results of the Plate Load Test,
the ultimate soil bearing capacity of actual footings can be approximately calculated as follows:
Case-I: For clays:
In clayee soils, bearing capacity is independent of the size of the footing
quf ( footing ) = qup
( Plate )
quf = ultimate bearing capacity of footing
qup = ultimate bearing capacity of plate determined from the load.
Case-2: For Sand/ Sandy Clay:
In sandy soils, bearing capacity is proportional to the size of footing.
qu ( footing ) = qup
( Plate ) Bf ( footing )
Bp ( Plate )
Bf = Width of footing
Bp = Width of plate
For allowable values of soil –bearing capacity ( qa, qallowable ) appropriate safety factor must
be applied. In this case, FS=3.0 is recommended:
q allow = qu ( footing )
FS
Allowable bearing pressure based on settlement criteria using plate load test:
The permissible settlement of footing is prescribed by codal provisions.
For sandy soil = 25 mm
For clay soil = 40 mm
Note that, when the allowable pressure qa is very large, the actual soil pressure qact is also large. Some
geotechnical consultants routenly limit the maximum allowable soil pressure to around 500 kPa in
recommendations to structural engineer for design whether settlement is a factor or not. Small footings
with large column loads are visually not very confidence-inspiring during construction, and with such a
large load involved this in cetainly not the location to be excessively conservative.
Engr. ROMMEL D. RAFISURA,PPO Office, Xavier University- Ateneo de Cagayan, Corrales Avenue, Cagayan de Oro City 9000
5
Proposed Three (3)- storey Bulding
MSU Marawi City, Lanao del Sur
Lancaster Development Corporation
Report No. RDR2024-22
IV. TEST RESULTS , COMPUTATIONS & RECOMMENDATIONS
Excavation for the three Test Holes were done using manual tools and it took about 2 hours to excavate
one Test hole. By any standard at the excavated layer, noticeable type of soil is "0.00m to 0.60m predominantly
sandy- clay soil; 0.60m to 1.10m consist of alternate layers of sandy lean clay and sandy fat clay; 1.10m to
bottom of pit is sandy elastic silt medium dense and normally consolidated. No water table is met."
From the two holes tested, the following data were gathered and will be used in solving the
allowable Soil Bearing of the site.
TEST PIT # 1
LOAD
NO.
1
2
3
4
qu =
DATE
TIME
TOTAL
LOAD ( kgs. )
Initial
Final
5 May 2024
5 May 2024
8:30 AM-9:30AM
9:30 AM-10:30AM
10:30 AM-11:30AM
11:30 PM-12:00PM
200
400
600
800
0
20
27
39
20
27
39
51
376.05
330.88
( Load intensity
at 25mm
settlement )
0
5 May 2024
5 May 2024
kN/m2
3833.333333
Modulus of Subgrade reaction:
FS =
Wt. of Platform :
Plate Size :
Area of Plate: =
Water Table :
367644 kN/m2/m at 2m depth
3.0
300 kgs
30 cm x 30 cm
900 cm2 ( 0.09 m2 )
N/A
READING (mm )
0
0
SETTLEMENT ( mm )
INCREMENTAL
TOTAL
20
7
12
12
200
400
20
27
39
51
600
800
10
20
20
27
30
40
39
50
51
60
TEST PIT # 1
TEST PIT # 2
LOAD
NO.
1
2
3
4
qu =
DATE
TIME
TOTAL
LOAD ( kgs. )
5 May 2024
12:00PM-12:45PM
12:45PM-12:50PM
12:50PM-1:46PM
1:46PM-2:30PM
200
400
600
800
5 May 2024
5 May 2024
5 May 2024
374.00
374.96
Modulus of Subgrade reaction:
FS =
Wt. of Platform :
Plate Size :
Area of Plate: =
Water Table :
329.12
kN/m2 ( Load intensity
at 25mm
settlement )
365689 kN/m2/m at 2m depth
3.0
300 kgs
35 cm x 35 cm
1225 cm2 ( 0.1225 m2 )
N/A
READING (mm )
SETTLEMENT ( mm )
Initial
Final INCREMENTAL TOTAL
0
14
26
34
14
26
34
46
0
5
10
15
20
25
30
35
40
45
50
0
14
12
8
12
200
400
14
26
34
46
600
800
TEST PIT # 2
Engr. ROMMEL D. RAFISURA,PPO Office, Xavier University- Ateneo de Cagayan, Corrales Avenue, Cagayan de Oro City 9000
6
Proposed Three (3)- storey Bulding
MSU Marawi City, Lanao del Sur
Lancaster Development Corporation
Report No. RDR2024-22
TEST PIT # 3
LOAD
NO.
1
2
3
4
DATE
TIME
TOTAL
LOAD ( kgs. )
5 May 2024
2:00PM-2:26PM
2:26PM-3:16PM
3:16PM-3:57PM
3:57PM-4:30PM
200
400
600
800
5 05 2024
5 05 2024
5 05 2024
qu =
368.00
368.42
323.84
Modulus of Subgrade reaction:
FS =
Wt. of Platform :
Plate Size :
Area of Plate: =
Water Table :
READING (mm )
SETTLEMENT ( mm )
Final INCREMENTAL TOTAL
Initial
0
3
3
4
:
:
:
:
26
16
15
14
20
32
47
61
kN/m2 ( Load intensity
at 25mm
settlement )
359822 kN/m2/m at 2m depth
3
300 kgs
35 cm x 35 cm
1225 cm2 ( 0.1225 m2 )
N/A
0
0
200
400
600
800
10
20
30
40
50
60
70
TEST PIT # 3
LOAD VS SETTLEMENT
:
Series1
Test Hole # 2
at 25mm settlement
Test Hole # 3
LOAD ( KGS. )
0
0
SETTLEMENT ( MM )
10
20
30
200
400
600
20.00
26.00
at 25 mm settlement
27.00
32.00
1200
q2 = 329.12 kPa
34.00
39.00
q1 = 330.88 kPa
47.00
60
70
1000
14.00
40
50
800
0
46.00
51.00
61.00
q2 = 323.84 kPa
80
90
100
Engr. ROMMEL D. RAFISURA,PPO Office, Xavier University- Ateneo de Cagayan, Corrales Avenue, Cagayan de Oro City 9000
7
Proposed Three (3)- storey Bulding
MSU Marawi City, Lanao del Sur
Lancaster Development Corporation
Report No. RDR2024-22
3
FACTOR OF SAFETY
2.5
2
q1 =
330.88
110.29
132.35
165.44
q2 =
329.12
109.71
131.65
164.56
q3 =
323.84
107.95
129.54
161.92
qallow =
qallow =
(
110.3
+
109.7 +
108 ) /
kpa
109.32
SAFE BEARING CAPACITY
3
( Test Hole # 2 )
Based on the Results of the three tests conducted, taking into consideration several factors
such as geological factors, human factors in the conduct of the tests, the slight modification of
ASTM D 1194 and as alternative factor for structural design; thus factor of safety is 3.0.
The analysis would like to conservatively recommend the following.
1- Excavate the foundation to a clear footing depth of 1.80 meters from the natural
grade line, with dimensions of 1.6m x 1.6m, with no presence of ground water below
reference point, and the actual heterogeneity of the soil or foundation material, the
allowable bearing capacity are as follows:
-TP-1: Design Resistance or Safe Bearing Capacity is
-TP-2: Design Resistance or Safe Bearing Capacity is
2- Use allowable soil bearing pressure of
109.32 kpa
110.29
109.71
( 2.28 ksf
kN/m2
kN/m2
.)
3- Use Isolated footing large enough to have actual allowable bearing pressure less
than the allowable bearing pressure obtained in the test. However, tie-beams maybe
used by the discretion of the Structural Engineer. Aside from isolated footing type,
compensated foundation without piles may have been necessary.
4- Depth of embedment required to resist lateral load should be computed as allowed by
NSCP 2015 Edition.
5- Due to variation in consistency of soil differential settlement may occur. Properly
designed Frame structure is recommended to avoid any possibility of differential
settlement.
6. Since a plate load test is of short duration, consolidation settlements cannot
predicted. The test gives the value of immediate settlements only.
be
In summary, though there is no likelihood of liquefaction, using the safe
static bearing capacity of 110kN/m2 – 170 kN/m2, you will expect that the
structure will undergo a total settlement of 2.58 cm under a maximum
earthquake moment of 7.50 and a peak ground acceleration of 0.18 g. This is also
accompanied by a maximum lateral displacement of 1.50 cm. The total allowable
capacity (down) is 165 kN with a corresponding total allowable capacity (up) of
105 kN.
Engr. ROMMEL D. RAFISURA,PPO Office, Xavier University- Ateneo de Cagayan, Corrales Avenue, Cagayan de Oro City 9000
8
Proposed Three (3)- storey Bulding
MSU Marawi City, Lanao del Sur
Lancaster Development Corporation
Report No. RDR2024-22
V. LOCATION MAP
THIS
SITE
CARMEN
DVSORIA
MACAJALAR BAY
ILIGAN CITY PROPER
MACANHAN
MACASANDIG
PUERTO
BARANGAY PALA-O
PUERTO HEIGHTS
VILLAGE
BALONGIS
USTP
THIS
BARANGAY BALULANG
SITE
THIS
SITE
Engr. ROMMEL D. RAFISURA,PPO Office, Xavier University- Ateneo de Cagayan, Corrales Avenue, Cagayan de Oro City
9
Proposed Three (3)- storey Bulding
MSU Marawi City, Lanao del Sur
Lancaster Development Corporation
Report No. RDR2024-22
VI. TEST PIT LOCATION
TEST PIT # 2
LAT
7°59'34.43"N
LONG 124°15'39.57"E
TEST PIT # 1
LAT
7°59'34.29"N
LONG 124°15'39.75"E
TEST PIT # 3
LAT
7°59'34.21"N
LONG 124°15'39.59"E
JUNCTION POLO- DAPITAN PARK NATIONAL ROAD
Engr. ROMMEL D. RAFISURA,PPO Office, Xavier University- Ateneo de Cagayan, Corrales Avenue, Cagayan de Oro City
10
Proposed Three (3)- storey Bulding
MSU Marawi City, Lanao del Sur
Lancaster Development Corporation
Report No. RDR2024-22
VII. TEST HOLES ACTUAL PHOTOGRAPHS
1. TEST PIT # 2
DEAD WEIGHTS
DEAD WEIGHTS
PLATE
PLATE
Engr. ROMMEL D. RAFISURA,PPO Office, Xavier University- Ateneo de Cagayan, Corrales Avenue, Cagayan de Oro City 9000
11
Proposed Three (3)- storey Bulding
MSU Marawi City, Lanao del Sur
Lancaster Development Corporation
Report No. RDR2024-22
2. TEST PIT # 1
DEAD WEIGHTS
DEAD WEIGHTS
( 40 Kgs Cement
Bags )
DEAD WEIGHTS
PLATE
Engr. ROMMEL D. RAFISURA,PPO Office, Xavier University- Ateneo de Cagayan, Corrales Avenue, Cagayan de Oro City 9000
12
Proposed Three (3)- storey Bulding
MSU Marawi City, Lanao del Sur
Lancaster Development Corporation
Report No. RDR2024-22
3. TEST PIT # 3
DEAD WEIGHTS
DEAD WEIGHTS
( 40 Kgs Cement
Bags )
DEAD WEIGHTS
PLATE
Engr. ROMMEL D. RAFISURA,PPO Office, Xavier University- Ateneo de Cagayan, Corrales Avenue, Cagayan de Oro City 9000
13
Proposed Three (3)- storey Bulding
MSU Marawi City, Lanao del Sur
Lancaster Development Corporation
Report No. RDR2024-22
Engr. ROMMEL D. RAFISURA,PPO Office, Xavier University- Ateneo de Cagayan, Corrales Avenue, Cagayan de Oro City 9000
PTR