Vibration Monitoring: Why do you need it?
Most vibration monitoring (due to construction activity) is usually performed to comply with local, state or federal regulations and often requires the monitoring of three ground and one air-overpressure channel. The regulations may also require the presentation of an infield printout of the vibration records.
These regulations require vibration monitoring in order to reduce or eliminate the potential impact to surrounding structures and services (i.e. mass transit) due to nearby construction activities. Construction and demolition in dense urban environments is complex and has strict vibration limitations. The growing need to monitor and protect existing subsurface transportation and service tunnels further increases the need for vibration monitoring.The use of dynamic compaction causes repetitive, transient vibration pulses which quickly dissipate. Dynamic compaction with vibratory rollers and large weights being dropped from cranes, and even the creation of the isolation trenches to limit the impact of the vibrations, can cause damages that result in legal claims. If legal claims are made you want to ensure that operations were maintained within regulations and the project criteria, which means making sure that vibration monitoring was performed and the peak particle velocity (PPV) was not exceeded. Vibration monitoring is required to help mitigate these damages to surrounding structures.
Pile driving activity causes repetitive transient vibration pulses. Reliable vibration monitoring of these pulses requires the capability to monitor continuously over long periods of time and record peak velocity data at regular intervals. Vibration monitoring is necessary to be able to understand the possible causes of high vibrations, because if these readings cannot be explained, the project may get shut down with a stop work order.
Contact John V. Dinan Associates if you are in need of Vibration Monitoring Plans, Manual Vibration Monitoring or Automatic Vibration Monitoring.
