Telecom structures impose various actions on foundations and these foundations are to be designed by a competent structural engineer to resist these actions. Loads from superstructures (lattice tower, monopoles etc.) are transferred to the supporting foundation and eventually to the underlying soil. There are two broad categories of foundations: shallow and deep foundation. Let’s focus on shallow foundations for now e.g. isolated pad, combined footing, strip and mat foundations. There are three critical checks: bearing check, sliding check and overturning checks.
Bearing Check: the bearing pressure under the base area of the foundation should not exceed the safe (or allowable) bearing pressure of the soil. A geotechnical survey is required to ascertain the soil bearing pressure and other soil parameters.
Sliding Checks: the shear reaction from the telecoms base reaction could cause the foundation to slide. The design sliding factor is checked against the allowable sliding factor of safety
Overturning Checks: the foundation needs to be checked for overturning. Moment reactions from telecom structures could cause the entire system to overturn. For stability of the foundation, we need to check the design overturning moment factor of safety against the allowable overturning moment factor of safety.
It is essential that an existing or a proposed foundation be designed by a competent structural engineer. KAEG are at the forefront of providing cost-effective foundation design solutions for telecom structures to ensure continuous safe operations. Contact our expert team at: info@ka-engroup.com to learn more and discuss how we can best serve your needs.
