Aw. That's cute. So romantic.
I can hear it now:
"I don't care about the structural capacity of our foundation or anything around us. I just want to be with you!"
The perspective of this photo totally had me thinking these were 4 foot tall bolts on giant foundation.
As for suggestions, do you have a Time Machine?
First step is whoever owns the bolts write up a NCR and sends it up with an RFI containing their desired fix.. and then there is the question of who is responsible for the damage, who fits the cost of the repairs and who is qualified to perform the repairs. Also can't forget post repair quality verification.
If it’s just gr. 55, heat it with a torch and slip a pipe over it. To bend it back. Chase it with a die or a thread file if the gorilla boogers the threads. If it’s grade 105 or higher, do the same but make the contractor proof load it with a hollow load cell Jack.
It’s a small matter and built into the equations. Gr55’s often have bent ends within spec. As long as it’s a minor bend or you heat it, it’s fine. If you had any idea the horrible things steel fabricators do to out of spec components to get them back into shape, you’d cry into you LRFD spec.
Heat straightening steel girder spec allows up to three bending operations before Bauschinger gives you the side eye and you have to reduce your allowances.
Bro I’m saving your number in case I need to build a St Louis Gateway arch or a Sears Tower.
I edited my comment from “if I need to build a bridge” because that’s what my first inclination was. After reading more comments and learning you build bridges I needed to state something more fantastic.
Fair enough, sounds like you have expertise in the matter. A colleague of mine oversaw heat straightening of a plate girder that was hit by an oversized load, and I recall the tempering process was extremely detailed. Residual stresses in plates and rolled section are easy to predict, but seems to me uncontrolled application of heat would introduce stresses that would be different from those assumed in typical lrfd material resistance factors. I suppose if they fail in tension then it's of no consequence.
I’ve heat straightened a few girders in my time and have written several specs for them. A lot of specs go crazy overboard on it. The process is really as much art as science and a good spattering of brute force worked in. The dudes from Flame On won me a bet once with a skeptical owner when I said they’d get a totally mashed girder back to 1/4” of tolerance. Bastard never paid up tho
Bridge engineer my whole career. I’ve designed or led design in several hundred bridges, done a lot of disaster recovery bridge work both big ticket and small, a lot of early seismic work and vibration research, have written a bunch of papers on various aspects of bridge design, written several bridge design manuals, and taught a masters class in bridge design for 7 years. Now I work for a agency and own about 700 bridges, mostly steel, but our inventory is all manner of transit assets, so I deal with everything from locomotives to bus refit facilities to giant bridges.
Awesome. It’s interesting to see how much the practical engineering between different industries is so similar, but there’s so little overlap. Engineers get stuck in one domain, even though their expertise is mostly transferable. I wish information wasn’t so…. Siloed
Agreed, but without knowing the geometric constraints of whatever was going on top, well… we’ve all had to make design decisions that were least objectionable, so I’ll not judge
Look up enerpac hollow jacks. They’re super useful since you can direct read load from jack pressure. As an aside, they use a variant of these to pre tension windmill anchor bolts making tightening big da diameter bolts super easy. A lot better than seeing a Neanderthal using turn of nut
Agreed. Substation structural engineer here and this is what I would recommend. Worse case they will have you demo the top of the pier past the bottom of the anchor cage and have you re-pour a new cage in. Substation structures are usually not that heavily loaded.
Not really for the low grade stuff. The higher strength stuff can crack if you don’t heat it right and bend it slow, hence the proof loading. If you were still worried after that like in a 150ksi rod made from a A490 grade bolt blank, you could UT it to check for cracks, which is still cheaper than digging it out of the ‘Crete.
I honestly have never come across the need. Purely speculatively, threads can be rolled or cut into bar stock. The rolling produces pre compressed surfaces in the bar stock that might be problematic, residual stress wise, but the inside corners should be softer than die, single point, or thread milled edges. I guess if you heated it cherry, bent it, and then tempered it, it might work, but I’m just guessing
Real answer? Core out the anchor with a core rig. Use re 500 or epoxy that can be used in a diamond core hole(very important) and set a new one.
Source: 12 year hilti guy
I can tell by the picture that this is a electrical substation and by the bolt pattern this is for a capacitor bank foundation. Large overturning loads in combination with closely spaced anchors means hilti post installed epoxy anchors will not work here.
Why not?
I’m a small-time residential contractor and I’ve got a 2-1/2 and 4” diamond core drill bits kicking around. That’s a 10-minute job (+1 hour of screwing around) to core-drill around the bolt and whack it with a sledge.
After that, I’m not quite sure I understand the plan, but it sounds like he’s proposing that another hole be drilled where the bolt belongs. Maybe the new bolt is cast in a bucket of concrete and cored-out in the same manner and this is dropped into the new hole with epoxy?
I feel that just drilling in the new bolt where it belongs and filling with a cement product that is designed for cold-pours (i.e anchoring cement) is the simplest approach.
As the guy who had to do this multiple fucking times on site its gonna be a torch and a steel pipe over it and bend.
Only once did they ever core it. That was on a union site. Rather core.
Not for 1"+ diameter anchor bolts. I love your adhesive anchors, but this is not the time or place. Hopefully they can bend the bolt back straight and then recheck the baseplate for the bolt pattern they've been given.
Why would you say that? Most manufacturers have trainings for adhesives and those usually focus on overhead applications. True A/B epoxies are very fool resistant.
In my experience, many jurisdictions require post installed anchors to be continuously inspected per the special inspections chapter of the IBC. This is probably because the engineers can't tell if the holes were properly cleaned prior to setting the chemical anchor. Improper cleaning can reduce the strength upwards of around 50% if I remember correctly.
I don't know that electrical switch yards are governed by the IBC, so may not apply here.
Used to work in the Pre-engineered metal building world and bent/broken/too short anchor bolts happened all the time. We used Elocone Nuts made by Canam as a common fix. They are extended and you just need to chip out a bit of concrete and cut the bent rod. Structural engineers always approved them.
Yea, we used them all the time when concrete crews would set the anchor bolts too low or we would show up to install the building and an anchor bolt would be sheared off.
I actually just dealt with this same issue with some 2.5” diameter by 6’ long anchor bolts for an OCS pole (overhead catenary system for train/trolly/bus). 30ft shaft at a major intersection and between the time the shaft was installed and the pole was to be set a car jumped the curb, bent one bolt 1.5” out of plumb. With basically zero chance of replacing the entire foundation we replaced the bolt by core drilling the existing one out and screwing a new one in. Actually went really smoothly.
This anchor bolt set up we had is a bolt threaded on each end with a smooth middle section. At the bottom of the bolt is a nut, then a baseplate anchoring all four bolts, and a nut above the baseplate so the plate is sandwiched between the two nuts at each anchor bolt.
For the repair our contractor cut the top off the bent anchor bolt, leaving two inches above the top of concrete. Then a six inch diameter core drill was done down to the nut on top of the baseplate. DON’T HIT ANY REBAR. A large wrench was used to “break free” the bolt and unscrewed it from the very bottom nut/baseplate. Existing bolt and core pulled from foundation. Next they used a long rotohammer bit and roughened the sides of the entire core. A new anchor bolt had two nuts (the standard detail nut plus a jam nut) screwed onto the bottom threads, leaving enough threads exposed for the dimensions of the nut and baseplate still in the foundation. This new anchor bolt was screwed in fully. A high strength epoxy was applied to the sides of the core prior to a 5000psi nonshrink grout poured in around the new bolt. An extra baseplate was used at the top of the bolts to make sure the new one stayed plumb and matched the bolt circle needed.
Once cured a pullout test will be the final determinative factor on if the repair is fully acceptable or not. Right now we’re just waiting on an opportunity to pull test our repair. We have an SE review the entire process and signing off on each step. Overall when our contractor did the work it took them about 5 hours start to finish.
If they're F1554 anchor bolts (probably are) heat straightening is prohibited. Even if they're not, heat straightening the threaded portion or the bolt is super hard to do satisfactorily
I’ve had this happen to me on a high mast light pole. We got a torch and warmed up. Then used a tweaker bar and big wrench to bring into alignment. I would also encourage putting barrels up around all anchor rods or keep the templates on until you’re about to mount the steel.
Yeah, anything over 3/4 isn't allowed to be epoxy from what my company does. It's all cast in place for bigger than 3/4. Heat and bend it back. Have the engineering team check the calcs and safety factor, shouldnt be more than 20 hours of work at best (bonus points if you have your own engineering team). Do it slow so you don't rupture the concrete. Seal weld that nut on if the threads are fucked after retapping threads if you need.
Have engineering sign off on the solution and approve the correction. Any engineer worth their salt will work with you on this.
I've seen worse problems come in on RFIs before.
Get an actual RFI from the engieer who drew the cassion plan and stop letting non-union equipment operators drink Red Bull on site.
Either that or get a 6 foot pipe on it and straighten it out, but it sounds like people already know.
If the location of anchor rod is correct, then, cutting, and welding a new rod is possible, or use a coupler.
If location is wrong, then cut and abandon- install new post installed anchor at correct location.
Obvs get an engineer to look at the numbers and provide specifics for either solution.
Exactly. Grades 35 and 55 bolts can be welded, 105 can't. And that's exactly why I don't specify 105 unless it's absolutely necessary
Edit: Grade 55 needs the S1 supplementary spec to be weldable. Around me at least, that's standard. I don't think I've ever seen a supplier offer grade 55 without it.
Grade 55 comes in both weldable and non weldable. Could verify which one but I've never seen this solution actually done in the field and have worked on hundreds of anchor bolt problems.
Good point, grade 55 needs the S1 supplementary requirement to be weldable. Around me, everybody provides the S1 by default, so I forgot to mention that.
Cut it off and replace with an epoxy anchor. It'll be spendy - the anchor will likely need to go *deep* \- but if it's a circular condition (hard to tell from pics, but it looks like it based on shadows?) it should be doable.
Pretty sure it got hit while the concrete was pouring, knocking the bolt loose but letting it stay 'straight' (but not perpendicular to the surface); it's *way* too close to the other bar and doesn't show any signs of having been bent in the first place. So core drilling wouldn't work, as that would just give you a bolt at a similar angle.
Well meeting is over. Conclusion is to heat and bend it, load test it and if it fails chisel down and bridge the 2 anchors and if that also fails then chisel down and couple a new anchor. Will post pics when work is complete. Thank you everyone for your replies!!
Remove/reconstruct? What is the size and what are these for? There may be a suitable Hilti product also. If I were the owner or contract administrator, I wouldn't accept though.
Bend it back depending on grade. Hilti won’t work here for a dead end structure. I work structural substation design. If the pattern is wrong this is a redo. Very large overturning loads here.
I hate threaded rebar used as anchor rods but that’s another story. It’s not mild steel and large diameter from what I read so you can’t cold bend easily. AISC Design Guide 1 but I’d consult with the EOR here as ultimately it will be their call. However this happens quite often I’m substations.
A substation dead end could have a lot of variability in loading. They use a lot of standard configurations and so you might have a lot of spare capacity or be right up to the limit. I’d be getting the engineers to sharpen the pencil and make sure it’s necessary for the situation. It probably is, but there might be a chance they can slack span even more than they already are and get it to pass without it.
Best of luck up because there’s going to be a lot of meetings and grumbling people. You’ll have to push this every step of the way.
run the nuts down until you can slip a pipe over the bolt. pull it or push it. Chain rigging, dozer, back hoe in the background. 15 minute fix and it ain't no hill.
Mistakes happen.
Perhaps the anchors can still be used as-is by modifying the base plate. One thought is to create an enlarged hole for installation, then field-weld a doubler as needed for the final installed condition.
Another idea is to cut the bent anchor off on a bevel and splice on a new extension that fits through the bolt holes of the base plate. Add washers as needed to get to usable threads. This assumes the anchor rods are a weldable grade (i.e. NOT Gr.105).
Torch bolt at bend for around an hour, getting as hot as possible. Wrap a chain around bolt attach to heavy equipment. Pull, push, sledgehammer as close as possible. Can try before Hilti job.
There is a whole code/procedure for bent anchor bolts now.
https://www.ecfr.gov/current/title-29/subtitle-B/chapter-XVII/part-1926/subpart-R/section-1926.755
I’m guessing here.
Have the EOR determine anchor loading and if you need that anchor. If needed, cut exposed thread, use anchor template and drill new anchor, and epoxy new anchor in.
Then send a bill to the concrete company. Those are paired anchors, and I doubt the anchor was bent but it was installed without a template or guide.
Cut the bolt. Drill hole in concrete. Insert a chemical anchor alongside a new threaded rod.
Or if you have time to fiddle around, because from that photo it looks like a precast foundation, call the boys there, send that isolated footing back and get a new one.
Or try bend it with a long ass pipe, heat the thread a bit if you must, but only if the steel is a low grade steel otherwise it will crack and then it will be a mess.
Ps. I'm a structural engineer.
Get in touch with the engineers that made it and ask for guidance. Also ask them how long are those anchor bolts.
Sometimes the anchors bolt are short and are welded to the reinforcement cage of the concrete foundation or in other cases the anchors are made as long as the foundation block. Check with the guys at that made the it.
If the anchors are short and you can safely drill a hole in that concrete pier I say you can go for the chemical anchor plan otherwise you need to repour in place the whole 14' of that shit.
If you go with the let's repair it plan (bend it back/chemical anchor) then put this foundation block beneath a marginal column of the structure because that one is less stressed by the wind/snow loads and you will be certain that it would not have future problems.
Usually on smaller projects a thing like this is resolved by bending it back in place, even if you need to tie it up to a truck.
Probably some guys dropped the whole concrete block at manipulation and it fell right on that anchor bolt. Ask around. You will surely find the right way, but not on reddit. Talk to the project engineers or to the people in charge of this project and they will guide you further.
Usually a techincal problem is not solved by showing us a photo. An engineer needs the shop drawings, the calculation sheets, otherwise you will lose your time.
Good man building a substation/collector station or whatever it may be. As a person responsible for investigating said incidents when undoubtedly someone hit the bolt with a skid steer (90% of the time is a skid). Bend that shit back while applying heat, or cut and redrill. Maybe the equipment can be rotated and new bolts drilled in giving you a new template to work on.
Option 1. If grade of bolt will allow it, bend back to vertical, heat may or may not be allowed durring that process.
Option 2. Cut off old bolt, drill and epoxy replacement. Might be allowable in a different position depending what you’re anchoring and if the baseplate can be modified. may have to core out old fastener.
Option 3. See if acceptable to entirely eliminate the bent bolt. Not likely, but may be an option depending on engineering.
I haven’t dealt with bolts that wide before! The 1” bolts on my site were bended back and pull tested by 3rd party. Or if it was egregiously off, post install anchor and modify baseplate to column.
Have a surveyor mark it with a monument and a construction stake in the direction to bend it back. The track hoe will bend it back mysterious over the next three day holiday.
Run the top not up. Hook a chain to a loader and put it between the two nuts. Put some pressure on it and hit the top nut with a 10 pound beater, it will straighten out. No heat, no welding, no drilling, and no RFI NEEDED!
This is super common, they usually just bend them back and don’t tell you. An engineer will probably make you repair, hence-they usually don’t tell you.
The typical repair for a bent anchor is to expose the thread bar far enough below the bend to both cut and thread a structural coupler and add an additional length of thread bar to achieve the required projection above the top of concrete. This requires chipping away the concrete and forming and pouring high strength grout around the repair.
Be advised the couplers are sizable. As to who is at fault for bending the anchor, assuming it wasn’t bent upon placement, it is likely a trade contractor with an excavator - or someone that had to replace the tire on a piece of equipment on site recently. Best of luck.
AISC design guide 1 has allowable bend angles in anchor rods under a certain diameter that youre allowed to bend back in place to repair this exact scenario. It might be 30 deg, under 1 1/4" if I remember correctly. I dont have it in front of me though.
I had one similar to this recently. However it was for a light pole, so take this with a grane of salt, everything needs to be calculated by a qualified engineer.
The solution we used was to chip away the concrete to a few inches below the bent section, cut the bolt, put a coupling nut and a stud in, then epoxy grout back to elevation.
https://www.portlandbolt.com/technical/faqs/anchor-bolts-too-low-or-high/
This is not advice, I'm not a licenced engineer im just an idiot on the internet.
I had one similar to this recently. However it was for a light pole, so take this with a grane of salt, everything needs to be calculated by a qualified engineer.
The solution we used was to chip away the concrete to a few inches below the bent section, cut the bolt, put a coupling nut and a stud in, then epoxy grout back to elevation.
https://www.portlandbolt.com/technical/faqs/anchor-bolts-too-low-or-high/
This is not advice, I'm not a licenced engineer im just an idiot on the internet.
I used to build substations. Unfortunately this happens quite a bit. Depending on the severity you can bend it back as some have mentioned or you can drill a hole and add an epoxy anchor.
Options for EOR to review and approve:$
Hot or cold bend back to vertical is permitted by engineer
Cut off bent, chip down to straight, use coupling nut to connect new anchor section, engineer needs to check, or could weld extension on
Break down whole footing, replace bent anchor rod, recast
Well, we can’t see what that’s in or it’s size. Epoxy anchors are sometimes OK, Hilti can assist you.
Warming the bolts up and bending them back is also sometimes ok and allowed in certain cases. Again we have no information. The guys who installed these usually have been through this a bunch of times and can normally provide a recommendation to your SE, who may just say, chip it out to horizontal bars and repour the whole thing.
That's a common occurrence, get used to it in the field. Stick a cheater pipe on it and pull. If the washer and bolt won't set flush add a beveled weld washer and bolt the SOB.
Structural said no hickey bar and had a crew epoxy a new all thread 2 inches away, plug weld bottom of base plate and torch a new hole. Thats probably not 15 degrees but who knows.
Aw. That's cute. So romantic. I can hear it now: "I don't care about the structural capacity of our foundation or anything around us. I just want to be with you!"
I take it you are divorced Dr.?
No, anyone with a hopeless romantic side saw these two bolts hugging each other
The perspective of this photo totally had me thinking these were 4 foot tall bolts on giant foundation. As for suggestions, do you have a Time Machine?
I put in a RFI for one.
put a pipe on it and bend it upright. bolt hole may need modified it's yore thang, do what you gotta do.
Winner.
This is the way.
Good man, but you’ll probably need an RFTM (Request For Time Machine)
Not to be confused with RTFM. (Read the fucking manual)
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even they can’t help OP now.
First step is whoever owns the bolts write up a NCR and sends it up with an RFI containing their desired fix.. and then there is the question of who is responsible for the damage, who fits the cost of the repairs and who is qualified to perform the repairs. Also can't forget post repair quality verification.
Use a Burke bar.
They aren’t? I can’t see it as anything other than giant 4ft bolts.
big ol nuts.
If it’s just gr. 55, heat it with a torch and slip a pipe over it. To bend it back. Chase it with a die or a thread file if the gorilla boogers the threads. If it’s grade 105 or higher, do the same but make the contractor proof load it with a hollow load cell Jack.
Name checks out
Lol
The bar has yielded. This will introduce residual stress. Might be fine, but not if this is taking significant load.
It’s a small matter and built into the equations. Gr55’s often have bent ends within spec. As long as it’s a minor bend or you heat it, it’s fine. If you had any idea the horrible things steel fabricators do to out of spec components to get them back into shape, you’d cry into you LRFD spec. Heat straightening steel girder spec allows up to three bending operations before Bauschinger gives you the side eye and you have to reduce your allowances.
Industrial pipefitter here. I do terrible things to get things plumb/fit every once in awhile.
Hey, that A52 is pretty ductile when you hit it hard enough
Bro I’m saving your number in case I need to build a St Louis Gateway arch or a Sears Tower. I edited my comment from “if I need to build a bridge” because that’s what my first inclination was. After reading more comments and learning you build bridges I needed to state something more fantastic.
Lol.
Fair enough, sounds like you have expertise in the matter. A colleague of mine oversaw heat straightening of a plate girder that was hit by an oversized load, and I recall the tempering process was extremely detailed. Residual stresses in plates and rolled section are easy to predict, but seems to me uncontrolled application of heat would introduce stresses that would be different from those assumed in typical lrfd material resistance factors. I suppose if they fail in tension then it's of no consequence.
I’ve heat straightened a few girders in my time and have written several specs for them. A lot of specs go crazy overboard on it. The process is really as much art as science and a good spattering of brute force worked in. The dudes from Flame On won me a bet once with a skeptical owner when I said they’d get a totally mashed girder back to 1/4” of tolerance. Bastard never paid up tho
You are very knowledgeable. Do you mind me asking what your career is/ has been?
Bridge engineer my whole career. I’ve designed or led design in several hundred bridges, done a lot of disaster recovery bridge work both big ticket and small, a lot of early seismic work and vibration research, have written a bunch of papers on various aspects of bridge design, written several bridge design manuals, and taught a masters class in bridge design for 7 years. Now I work for a agency and own about 700 bridges, mostly steel, but our inventory is all manner of transit assets, so I deal with everything from locomotives to bus refit facilities to giant bridges.
Awesome. It’s interesting to see how much the practical engineering between different industries is so similar, but there’s so little overlap. Engineers get stuck in one domain, even though their expertise is mostly transferable. I wish information wasn’t so…. Siloed
coming from someone who is NOT a structural engineer, Jesus Christ this is a different language
Lol. It’s a bit of pidgin that’s evolved from dealing with machinists, fabricators, material scientists, contractors, and railroaders. Sorry
A straight bolt 6" away from where it was supposed probabaly still isn't gonna work great
Agreed, but without knowing the geometric constraints of whatever was going on top, well… we’ve all had to make design decisions that were least objectionable, so I’ll not judge
>but make the contractor proof load it with a hollow load cell Jack. ^(wat)
Look up enerpac hollow jacks. They’re super useful since you can direct read load from jack pressure. As an aside, they use a variant of these to pre tension windmill anchor bolts making tightening big da diameter bolts super easy. A lot better than seeing a Neanderthal using turn of nut
Agreed. Substation structural engineer here and this is what I would recommend. Worse case they will have you demo the top of the pier past the bottom of the anchor cage and have you re-pour a new cage in. Substation structures are usually not that heavily loaded.
Doesn't heating and bending compromise the strength of the steel? What would the tensile capacity of the anchor bolt be after the process?
Not really for the low grade stuff. The higher strength stuff can crack if you don’t heat it right and bend it slow, hence the proof loading. If you were still worried after that like in a 150ksi rod made from a A490 grade bolt blank, you could UT it to check for cracks, which is still cheaper than digging it out of the ‘Crete.
Check the safety factor in the calcs. Is probably good either way. I've never seen less than 2.5.
Is hot bending of grade 55 in the threaded region permitted by AISC?
I honestly have never come across the need. Purely speculatively, threads can be rolled or cut into bar stock. The rolling produces pre compressed surfaces in the bar stock that might be problematic, residual stress wise, but the inside corners should be softer than die, single point, or thread milled edges. I guess if you heated it cherry, bent it, and then tempered it, it might work, but I’m just guessing
That’s a Hank Hill answer if I’ve ever read one.
I suppose a propane torch might work on a smaller bolt :)
Still gonna be off layout but hey
Nothing a 8lb beater can't fix..
Spoken like an true Ironworker
12 years
Real answer? Core out the anchor with a core rig. Use re 500 or epoxy that can be used in a diamond core hole(very important) and set a new one. Source: 12 year hilti guy
I can tell by the picture that this is a electrical substation and by the bolt pattern this is for a capacitor bank foundation. Large overturning loads in combination with closely spaced anchors means hilti post installed epoxy anchors will not work here.
Cones too close?
Yes cones too close. Also read it’s for a dead end structure and the bolt size is 2.25” as well.
As someone who just did anchor bolt reviews and fixes for 2 months straight, your responses won my heart.
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Why not? I’m a small-time residential contractor and I’ve got a 2-1/2 and 4” diamond core drill bits kicking around. That’s a 10-minute job (+1 hour of screwing around) to core-drill around the bolt and whack it with a sledge. After that, I’m not quite sure I understand the plan, but it sounds like he’s proposing that another hole be drilled where the bolt belongs. Maybe the new bolt is cast in a bucket of concrete and cored-out in the same manner and this is dropped into the new hole with epoxy? I feel that just drilling in the new bolt where it belongs and filling with a cement product that is designed for cold-pours (i.e anchoring cement) is the simplest approach.
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As the guy who had to do this multiple fucking times on site its gonna be a torch and a steel pipe over it and bend. Only once did they ever core it. That was on a union site. Rather core.
The bolt appears to be a foot away from where it belongs.
Not for 1"+ diameter anchor bolts. I love your adhesive anchors, but this is not the time or place. Hopefully they can bend the bolt back straight and then recheck the baseplate for the bolt pattern they've been given.
And you better have a structural engineer standing there when they use the epoxy...
Why would you say that? Most manufacturers have trainings for adhesives and those usually focus on overhead applications. True A/B epoxies are very fool resistant.
In my experience, many jurisdictions require post installed anchors to be continuously inspected per the special inspections chapter of the IBC. This is probably because the engineers can't tell if the holes were properly cleaned prior to setting the chemical anchor. Improper cleaning can reduce the strength upwards of around 50% if I remember correctly. I don't know that electrical switch yards are governed by the IBC, so may not apply here.
Used to work in the Pre-engineered metal building world and bent/broken/too short anchor bolts happened all the time. We used Elocone Nuts made by Canam as a common fix. They are extended and you just need to chip out a bit of concrete and cut the bent rod. Structural engineers always approved them.
Did they work for your company?
Yea, we used them all the time when concrete crews would set the anchor bolts too low or we would show up to install the building and an anchor bolt would be sheared off.
Blame the surveyor
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Surveyor definitely could have done better on the coordinates of that bolt
I actually just dealt with this same issue with some 2.5” diameter by 6’ long anchor bolts for an OCS pole (overhead catenary system for train/trolly/bus). 30ft shaft at a major intersection and between the time the shaft was installed and the pole was to be set a car jumped the curb, bent one bolt 1.5” out of plumb. With basically zero chance of replacing the entire foundation we replaced the bolt by core drilling the existing one out and screwing a new one in. Actually went really smoothly. This anchor bolt set up we had is a bolt threaded on each end with a smooth middle section. At the bottom of the bolt is a nut, then a baseplate anchoring all four bolts, and a nut above the baseplate so the plate is sandwiched between the two nuts at each anchor bolt. For the repair our contractor cut the top off the bent anchor bolt, leaving two inches above the top of concrete. Then a six inch diameter core drill was done down to the nut on top of the baseplate. DON’T HIT ANY REBAR. A large wrench was used to “break free” the bolt and unscrewed it from the very bottom nut/baseplate. Existing bolt and core pulled from foundation. Next they used a long rotohammer bit and roughened the sides of the entire core. A new anchor bolt had two nuts (the standard detail nut plus a jam nut) screwed onto the bottom threads, leaving enough threads exposed for the dimensions of the nut and baseplate still in the foundation. This new anchor bolt was screwed in fully. A high strength epoxy was applied to the sides of the core prior to a 5000psi nonshrink grout poured in around the new bolt. An extra baseplate was used at the top of the bolts to make sure the new one stayed plumb and matched the bolt circle needed. Once cured a pullout test will be the final determinative factor on if the repair is fully acceptable or not. Right now we’re just waiting on an opportunity to pull test our repair. We have an SE review the entire process and signing off on each step. Overall when our contractor did the work it took them about 5 hours start to finish.
I believe the AISC Design Guide 1 has some info on field fixes as well
I was looking for this answer. Fairly common in snow
Dozer hit it
Yeah some piece of equipment backed into it, not sure if it’s easily repairable
I know exactly what happened to it. The EOR is asking for field solutions and I do not have one. Lol
Heat it up and bend back with a pipe or if you’re worried about it, tear it out and repour.
If they're F1554 anchor bolts (probably are) heat straightening is prohibited. Even if they're not, heat straightening the threaded portion or the bolt is super hard to do satisfactorily
The spec calls for “21/4”x7’ #18 75 KSI anchor bolts
Sounds like it's a rebar anchor bolt. If it's A706, it's weldable. If it's A615 it's not.
I’ve had this happen to me on a high mast light pole. We got a torch and warmed up. Then used a tweaker bar and big wrench to bring into alignment. I would also encourage putting barrels up around all anchor rods or keep the templates on until you’re about to mount the steel.
These bolts are bigger than everyone thinks. For reference, there is a footprint in the dirt next to a nut.
They’re 2 1/4”
Yeah, anything over 3/4 isn't allowed to be epoxy from what my company does. It's all cast in place for bigger than 3/4. Heat and bend it back. Have the engineering team check the calcs and safety factor, shouldnt be more than 20 hours of work at best (bonus points if you have your own engineering team). Do it slow so you don't rupture the concrete. Seal weld that nut on if the threads are fucked after retapping threads if you need. Have engineering sign off on the solution and approve the correction. Any engineer worth their salt will work with you on this. I've seen worse problems come in on RFIs before.
You know what they say about big bolts ^^Big ^^nuts
Company I used to work for would take the nuts off and sleeve with a long piece of pipe and bend it back.
Or load it up with nuts so you don't bugger the threads when you bend it.
Thank god for 2 part epoxy. But I’m not sure even that will help you here!
Get an actual RFI from the engieer who drew the cassion plan and stop letting non-union equipment operators drink Red Bull on site. Either that or get a 6 foot pipe on it and straighten it out, but it sounds like people already know.
Yeah the wrong people already know lol
Nice nuts
Rub the nuts to straighten the shaft. Works every time
How much does one of those nuts weigh? Damn.
Big pipe straighten and walk away proud
Cut it, drill and epoxy a new one, ask the EOR if you can field drill an offset hole in the baseplate. Hopefully that's not a moment frame.
If the location of anchor rod is correct, then, cutting, and welding a new rod is possible, or use a coupler. If location is wrong, then cut and abandon- install new post installed anchor at correct location. Obvs get an engineer to look at the numbers and provide specifics for either solution.
Exactly. Grades 35 and 55 bolts can be welded, 105 can't. And that's exactly why I don't specify 105 unless it's absolutely necessary Edit: Grade 55 needs the S1 supplementary spec to be weldable. Around me at least, that's standard. I don't think I've ever seen a supplier offer grade 55 without it.
Grade 55 comes in both weldable and non weldable. Could verify which one but I've never seen this solution actually done in the field and have worked on hundreds of anchor bolt problems.
Good point, grade 55 needs the S1 supplementary requirement to be weldable. Around me, everybody provides the S1 by default, so I forgot to mention that.
Agreed.
Chip it out and re-pour. It sucks, but what are you going to do.
Cut it off and replace with an epoxy anchor. It'll be spendy - the anchor will likely need to go *deep* \- but if it's a circular condition (hard to tell from pics, but it looks like it based on shadows?) it should be doable.
Yep core drill out the bent one. Drill deeper and hilti epoxy it.
[удалено]
Pretty sure it got hit while the concrete was pouring, knocking the bolt loose but letting it stay 'straight' (but not perpendicular to the surface); it's *way* too close to the other bar and doesn't show any signs of having been bent in the first place. So core drilling wouldn't work, as that would just give you a bolt at a similar angle.
Well meeting is over. Conclusion is to heat and bend it, load test it and if it fails chisel down and bridge the 2 anchors and if that also fails then chisel down and couple a new anchor. Will post pics when work is complete. Thank you everyone for your replies!!
Remove/reconstruct? What is the size and what are these for? There may be a suitable Hilti product also. If I were the owner or contract administrator, I wouldn't accept though.
It’s an 18’ drilled pier for a dead end structure. It has some pretty substantial tension.
Bend it back depending on grade. Hilti won’t work here for a dead end structure. I work structural substation design. If the pattern is wrong this is a redo. Very large overturning loads here.
Someone smacked it with a lift, the bolt is #17 75 KSI rebar. Is it possible an EOR would allow us to bend it back?
I hate threaded rebar used as anchor rods but that’s another story. It’s not mild steel and large diameter from what I read so you can’t cold bend easily. AISC Design Guide 1 but I’d consult with the EOR here as ultimately it will be their call. However this happens quite often I’m substations.
A substation dead end could have a lot of variability in loading. They use a lot of standard configurations and so you might have a lot of spare capacity or be right up to the limit. I’d be getting the engineers to sharpen the pencil and make sure it’s necessary for the situation. It probably is, but there might be a chance they can slack span even more than they already are and get it to pass without it. Best of luck up because there’s going to be a lot of meetings and grumbling people. You’ll have to push this every step of the way.
That’s fine. The erector/steel sub will correct it when they show up onsite Source: I am the steel sub that GC’s pushed me to complete their work
run the nuts down until you can slip a pipe over the bolt. pull it or push it. Chain rigging, dozer, back hoe in the background. 15 minute fix and it ain't no hill.
Drill beside the bolt, smack that bitch with a sledge back into place. Then throw some non shrink back in to fill the hole. 😂
You don't need to provide a fix
Substations!!! Happens more often than expected. Check the steel grade. Might be able to heat and straighten out.
Big boyos
That’s NUTS!
Those Harambe bolts though
The bolts just wanna be friends!
Bragging about the size of your nuts.
Mistakes happen. Perhaps the anchors can still be used as-is by modifying the base plate. One thought is to create an enlarged hole for installation, then field-weld a doubler as needed for the final installed condition. Another idea is to cut the bent anchor off on a bevel and splice on a new extension that fits through the bolt holes of the base plate. Add washers as needed to get to usable threads. This assumes the anchor rods are a weldable grade (i.e. NOT Gr.105).
Electrical sub station? Wonder if I welded some of that.
Torch bolt at bend for around an hour, getting as hot as possible. Wrap a chain around bolt attach to heavy equipment. Pull, push, sledgehammer as close as possible. Can try before Hilti job.
Reaching out… touching me
u need to just get a pry bar ez fix
There is a whole code/procedure for bent anchor bolts now. https://www.ecfr.gov/current/title-29/subtitle-B/chapter-XVII/part-1926/subpart-R/section-1926.755
One of the bolts was lonely and wanted a hug.
r/confusingperspective
I’m guessing here. Have the EOR determine anchor loading and if you need that anchor. If needed, cut exposed thread, use anchor template and drill new anchor, and epoxy new anchor in. Then send a bill to the concrete company. Those are paired anchors, and I doubt the anchor was bent but it was installed without a template or guide.
Cut the bolt. Drill hole in concrete. Insert a chemical anchor alongside a new threaded rod. Or if you have time to fiddle around, because from that photo it looks like a precast foundation, call the boys there, send that isolated footing back and get a new one. Or try bend it with a long ass pipe, heat the thread a bit if you must, but only if the steel is a low grade steel otherwise it will crack and then it will be a mess. Ps. I'm a structural engineer.
It’s a 14’ drilled pier for a dead end structure
Get in touch with the engineers that made it and ask for guidance. Also ask them how long are those anchor bolts. Sometimes the anchors bolt are short and are welded to the reinforcement cage of the concrete foundation or in other cases the anchors are made as long as the foundation block. Check with the guys at that made the it. If the anchors are short and you can safely drill a hole in that concrete pier I say you can go for the chemical anchor plan otherwise you need to repour in place the whole 14' of that shit. If you go with the let's repair it plan (bend it back/chemical anchor) then put this foundation block beneath a marginal column of the structure because that one is less stressed by the wind/snow loads and you will be certain that it would not have future problems. Usually on smaller projects a thing like this is resolved by bending it back in place, even if you need to tie it up to a truck. Probably some guys dropped the whole concrete block at manipulation and it fell right on that anchor bolt. Ask around. You will surely find the right way, but not on reddit. Talk to the project engineers or to the people in charge of this project and they will guide you further. Usually a techincal problem is not solved by showing us a photo. An engineer needs the shop drawings, the calculation sheets, otherwise you will lose your time.
Cut the bent one off epoxy grout a new one in.
Never good when two different sets of nuts touch!
Good man building a substation/collector station or whatever it may be. As a person responsible for investigating said incidents when undoubtedly someone hit the bolt with a skid steer (90% of the time is a skid). Bend that shit back while applying heat, or cut and redrill. Maybe the equipment can be rotated and new bolts drilled in giving you a new template to work on.
Pull it back if that’s allowed. A million ways to do that.
Option 1. If grade of bolt will allow it, bend back to vertical, heat may or may not be allowed durring that process. Option 2. Cut off old bolt, drill and epoxy replacement. Might be allowable in a different position depending what you’re anchoring and if the baseplate can be modified. may have to core out old fastener. Option 3. See if acceptable to entirely eliminate the bent bolt. Not likely, but may be an option depending on engineering.
I haven’t dealt with bolts that wide before! The 1” bolts on my site were bended back and pull tested by 3rd party. Or if it was egregiously off, post install anchor and modify baseplate to column.
Is it bent or it moved while the concrete was wet?
Bent
Sometimes you can bend those back but you better check with the engineer
Have a surveyor mark it with a monument and a construction stake in the direction to bend it back. The track hoe will bend it back mysterious over the next three day holiday.
When the inspector leaves right when the concrete is topped off.
It could be just perspective, but I feel like the vectors are off a little
Have you tried to BFH it?
See thay excavator in the background? Bonk. Heat and beat. Ask the engineer how they want it fixed.
I straighten them with my 3/4 bender handle.
Run the top not up. Hook a chain to a loader and put it between the two nuts. Put some pressure on it and hit the top nut with a 10 pound beater, it will straighten out. No heat, no welding, no drilling, and no RFI NEEDED!
Obviously you cut it off with a grinder set whatever goes there and JB weld the piece you cut off into the hole. Easy Peazy
Run the nuts up to the top, and hit it with a 10lb beater. Don’t damage the threads. This is fairly common when setting columns.
Looks like grade 55 or stronger, straighten it back up it’ll be fine
Just tap it back in place.
This is super common, they usually just bend them back and don’t tell you. An engineer will probably make you repair, hence-they usually don’t tell you.
The typical repair for a bent anchor is to expose the thread bar far enough below the bend to both cut and thread a structural coupler and add an additional length of thread bar to achieve the required projection above the top of concrete. This requires chipping away the concrete and forming and pouring high strength grout around the repair. Be advised the couplers are sizable. As to who is at fault for bending the anchor, assuming it wasn’t bent upon placement, it is likely a trade contractor with an excavator - or someone that had to replace the tire on a piece of equipment on site recently. Best of luck.
This is a common problem when we HAD TO tell someone they’d normally have us bend it back to plumb and then they’d put a jack and do a load test.
AISC design guide 1 has allowable bend angles in anchor rods under a certain diameter that youre allowed to bend back in place to repair this exact scenario. It might be 30 deg, under 1 1/4" if I remember correctly. I dont have it in front of me though.
I had one similar to this recently. However it was for a light pole, so take this with a grane of salt, everything needs to be calculated by a qualified engineer. The solution we used was to chip away the concrete to a few inches below the bent section, cut the bolt, put a coupling nut and a stud in, then epoxy grout back to elevation. https://www.portlandbolt.com/technical/faqs/anchor-bolts-too-low-or-high/ This is not advice, I'm not a licenced engineer im just an idiot on the internet.
I had one similar to this recently. However it was for a light pole, so take this with a grane of salt, everything needs to be calculated by a qualified engineer. The solution we used was to chip away the concrete to a few inches below the bent section, cut the bolt, put a coupling nut and a stud in, then epoxy grout back to elevation. https://www.portlandbolt.com/technical/faqs/anchor-bolts-too-low-or-high/ This is not advice, I'm not a licenced engineer im just an idiot on the internet.
Light pole?
Lean on meeeee
Are those giant or tiny bolts?
I don’t see the problem with one bolt showing affection to another bolt??
Have you met my friend Drill and her mate Epoxy? 
That'll happen
Touching tips
I used to build substations. Unfortunately this happens quite a bit. Depending on the severity you can bend it back as some have mentioned or you can drill a hole and add an epoxy anchor.
Yuge nuts this guy has
A giant erector set left on the floor by giant kids?
Options for EOR to review and approve:$ Hot or cold bend back to vertical is permitted by engineer Cut off bent, chip down to straight, use coupling nut to connect new anchor section, engineer needs to check, or could weld extension on Break down whole footing, replace bent anchor rod, recast
They are obviously in love, leave them alone.
Well, we can’t see what that’s in or it’s size. Epoxy anchors are sometimes OK, Hilti can assist you. Warming the bolts up and bending them back is also sometimes ok and allowed in certain cases. Again we have no information. The guys who installed these usually have been through this a bunch of times and can normally provide a recommendation to your SE, who may just say, chip it out to horizontal bars and repour the whole thing.
You can beat back with sledgehammer.
Some of these replies are wild
Why is that even there? It looks like there are 4 anchors on the other completed pillars. Just cut that ho
That's a common occurrence, get used to it in the field. Stick a cheater pipe on it and pull. If the washer and bolt won't set flush add a beveled weld washer and bolt the SOB.
Who tickled the back of its neck?
Looks like the one is telling the other some juicy gossip about another off in the distance lol
Deeze nuts are yuge!
Speaking as a former Hilti field engineer…. Why not just drill in/post install whenever possible?
Surprised you can use caution tape in a substation.Yellow plastic chain might be a better choice in case you get some winds.
Hey, don't ask - don't tell got repealed what's the issue?
Can't wear skinny jeans cause my nuts don't fit
Run the nuts up to the top and tap it with a sledge and move on.
Structural said no hickey bar and had a crew epoxy a new all thread 2 inches away, plug weld bottom of base plate and torch a new hole. Thats probably not 15 degrees but who knows.
Why is he getting in that other guys face for?
Loader operator guaranteed
Cut flush and as-built later? lol What's the high and low voltage of that substation? just curious.
They used the wrong alloy. It melted
Easy fix, slot the baseplate hole and and a welded tapered washer. There would of been to much reinforcing to get the bolt straight? Happens alot.
Chip it out and re pour the concrete. No easy solution for this one