UFC 3-220-01N
15 AUGUST 2005
CHAPTER 1
INTRODUCTION
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PURPOSE. This UFC presents guidance for selecting and designing
foundations for buildings and facilities of all types and associated features for buildings
such as earth embankments and slopes, retaining structures, and machinery
foundations. Foundations for hydraulic structures are not included; however,
foundations design methods for piers, wharves and waterfront structures are covered.
Foundation design differs considerably from design of other elements of a structure
because of the interaction between the structure and the supporting medium (soil and
rock). The soil and rock medium are highly variable as compared to steel and concrete
products above the soil; therefore, much attention is given to presenting subsurface
investigation methods to better determine the properties of the soil and rock. The
seismic aspects of foundation design are presented in detail.
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SCOPE. Information contained in this UFC is directed toward construction
usually undertaken on military reservations, although it is sufficiently general to permit
its use on a wide variety of construction projects. Some of the references are directed
toward highway construction, but are also general enough to be applied to any
construction foundation items. Effort has been made to refer the user to as many non-
government standards as possible, when they appear to cover the topics as well as the
former manuals or provide new and innovative methods for the design of foundations on
soil and rock. Where there are no non-government criteria or insufficient coverage of
the topic in the non-government criteria, the existing government criteria from either the
U.S. Army Corps of Engineers or Naval Facilities Engineering Command publications
are either referenced or have been inserted totally in the document.
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REFERENCES. Appendix A contains a list of references used in this
UFC. References are denoted as primary or secondary when mentioned in the
chapters. Primary references will cover the subject of the chapter in detail without the
aid of additional references. Secondary references may cover a portion of the subject
matter of a chapter in detail, but will need additional references to complete a design or
investigation. The non-government criteria primary references present both load factor,
used in the International Building Code, and safety factor design methods, whereas the
U.S Army Corps of Engineers Technical Manuals and Naval Facilities Engineering
Design Manuals present the classic design procedures using the traditional safety factor
design approaches.
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GENERAL GUIDIANCE. These Geotechnical criteria are intended for a
graduate civil engineer who has had some Geotechnical engineering exposure in the
classroom and in the field of construction and engineering design for approximately
three years. The engineer should have access to a textbook in Geotechnical
engineering from the college attended and have access to the Internet to obtain the
references mentioned in the text.
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Content Guidance. These Geotechnical engineering criteria have been
organized starting with a referenced textbook for background on shallow foundations,
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