What is A Helical Pile?

A helical pile or a screwpile is a ground anchoring extendable deep foundation system used for bearing/building foundations. The basic components of a helical pile include the lead, extensions, helical bearing plates and pile cap. The anchor/pile is built with helical bearing plates welded to a central shaft which is used as a supporting mechanism for the structure's load to be transferred from the shaft to the soil. There are a number of different configurations that make up a complete helical pile system, the combined structure design load requirement, geotechnical parameters, environmental parameters and the structures design life all contribute to the overall number of helices, their diameters and position on the pile shaft. There are commonly 2 different shaft series', the round shaft and the square shaft. A combination of the square and round shaft systems are also applicable for compression applications in soil conditions where dense, hard soils must be penetrated with softer, loose soils above the bearing strata.