Helical Piles: An Emerging Two Century Old Deep Foundation Solution
Helical piles have been used for almost 200 years. Invented by Alexander Mitchell in the United Kingdom in the 1830's, spiral piles were originally designed to support marine structures like lighthouses and ships in the sea. At the end of the 1800's and the beginning of 1900, hundreds of lighthouses were built on spiral piles along the east coast of North America – remarkably, some of them still stand today. There are very few projects in which land conditions are more demanding than those in the sea. Recognizing that helical piles were ...