Developing Underground Space in Louisville, Kentucky
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PLANNING & DEVELOPMENT _ Developing Underground Space In Louisville, Kentucky C. Robert Ullrich D. Joseph Hagerty University of Louisville Joseph C. Corradino Schimpeler-Corradino Associates he Louisville Crushed Stone including representatives of the Uni• Site Characteristics Company's underground quarry versity of Louisville. T operation supplies crushed This paper describes the results of limestone and dolomite to the Louis• the two studies mentioned above, with Active quarrying at the Louisville ville and Jefferson County construc• emphasis on the description of the cav• Crushed Stone Company site began in tion market. The quarry is located north ern, its physical features, and its struc• the 1930's as an open-pit operation, and of the 1-264 Watterson Expressway and tural and drainage problems. Recom• work moved underground in the late east of Poplar Level Road in south-cen• mendations presented to the City of 1940's. In the early stages of quarrying tral Louisville. Although active quar• Louisville for development of the cav• only the lower 20-25 ft of the Louis• rying stopped in 1970, the operators ern are also described. ville limestone overlying the Waldron of the quarry continue to sell from the shale was mined. Quarrying was re• large stockpiles of crushed stone on the stricted to the outlines shown in Figure 2 because of property ownership, legal property. The large underground cav• Geology of the Quarry Area ern created by the quarry operation considerations, and public concerns re• as bee': the subject of ecfnt feasibil• Louisville is situated at the falls of garding quarry operations in an urban Ity studtes of commercial( and indus• the Ohio River, a series of rapids de• area. Subsequent mining was done by trial development. veloped on the Devonian jeffersonville stripping the Waldron shale first and In 1982 the City of Louisville con• lim estone. The Jeffersonville lime• stockpiling it in various parts of the tracted with a team of geotechnical en• stone and underlying Silurian lime• quarry; then the Laurel dolomite was gineers from the University of Louis• stone and shale formations are essen• mined for its val ue as crushed stone. ville to study whether the cavern was tially flat-lying sediments which underlie The Osgood Formation, which un• safe for development. Although var• most of eastern and central Louisville. derlies the Laurel dolomite, is not a ious issues of concern were identified Western Louisville is underlain by al• construction-quality material. Thus, by the study, none was deemed un• luvial sediments contained in a deep quarrying operations ceased when most solvable within reasonable limits of cost. valley incised into bedrock. parts of the mine had been excavated Thus, a second study was undertaken In the vicinity of the Louisville to the base of the Laurel dolomite. The in 1982-83, again under City of Louis• Crushed Stone Company quarry, up• cavern created by this excavation se• ville sponsorship, to examine the land• lands are capped by the Jeffersonville quence contains approximately 96 acres use, economic, engineering, environ• limestone and a clayey, red residual soil of space, and the ceiling of the mine is mental, and implementation issues in• developed from it. Underlying the jef• supported by 223 pillars whose loca• herent in developing the quarry. This fersonville limestone are, in sequence, tions are shown in Figure 2. second study was done by the Metro the Louisville limestone (approxi• A short section of the Watterson Ex• Consulting Group, a consortium of ar• mately 60ft thick); the Waldron shale pressway, built in the 1950's, crosses chitectural, legal, and marketing firms, (10 ft thick); the Laurel dolomite (40 the southern extremity of the mine; ft thick); and the Osgood formation, surface areas occupied by the express• C. Robert Ullrich is Associate Professor of which consists of thinly-bedded lime• way are federally owned. Also, surface Civil Engineering and D.Joseph Hagerty is stones and shales (Fig. 1). At the quarry development rights to property over• Professor of Civil Engineering, University site, mining has been done from mid• lying the northern one-half of the mine of Louisville, Louisville, Kentucky. Joseph depth of the Louisville limestone down are held by the City of Louisville. The C. Corradino is Principal, Schimpeler-Cor• to the upper few feet of the Osgood Louisville Zoological Gardens were radino Associates, Louisville, Kentucky. Formation. constructed on this property in the 196 Undtrground Spaet, Vol. 8. pp. 196-205, 1984. 0362·0565/84 $3.00 + .00 Printed in the U.S.A. All rights reserved. Copyright C> Pergamon Press Ltd. 1960's and now overlie northern parts grass Creek, which is located east of the corresponds to a natural, relativel y of the mine. quarry site (Fig. 2). The ceiling of the smooth bedding plane near mid-depth The topography of surface areas underground quarry was developed to of the Louisville limestone. The shal• overlying the quarry dips toward Bear- an essentially constant elevation and lowest depth of cover is about 20 ft and occurs along western boundaries of the mine. Not coincidentally, most leakage 0' Beechwood I+I of water into the mine is found in these "-G> c ::IC Limestone 0 areas. (The locations of all water-bear• c .00 +I Q)·- )- ing joints and sidewall seeps are noted -C ... (/) .. !Q in Figure 2). The greatest depth of -oo Q)Q) Silver Creek I "C> =E Limestone cover, approximately 60 ft, is found z ·-Q) -- ..._ ,N along western boundaries of the quarry. :Eo a>.- I-- ---..:::.. , --- I -[ (/)...J ---- 0 Almost all the overburden materials z -- +I consist of Louisville limestone and Jef• 0 c fersonville limestone, as well as resid• > c - ual soil cover. w ·- I 0 c Two joint sets are exposed in the 0 - - 0 ceiling of the quarry. The major (best• > - "CQ) Jeffersonville •i..\.',{\ .1\t. developed) joint set strikes basically co north-south, with individual joints hav• c Limestone ,......... '\ 0-25 ... Q) :._ , \ ing a vertical orientation. Joints in this a>:O · \(' set are spaced about 10-20 ft apart and 3"0 , ;,-.· are generally infilled with calcite. A mi• 0·- )._'S'-.' nor east-west striking joint set consists ...J::!E . ' t '-.A_.' of joints which are vertical in attitude and generally more closely spaced than ,. (01" - - - - - joints in the major set. (East-west strik• - ing joints are frequently water-bear• ing, especially along the eastern perim• eter of the quarry.) The floor of the quarry is situated basically at two levels. An upper floor elevation about 4 ft above the contact between the Louisville limestone and the Waldron shale is typical of areas Louisville near the mine entrance (Subarea D in Limestone Fig. 2) and the northern portion of the southern extension of the mine (Sub• area A). Floor-to-ceiling distances on the upper level range from 20 to 25 ft. In these areas the pillars and sidewalls contain very little loose rock. Condi• tions in Subarea A are shown in Figure 3. (Note the seepage throughjoints in c the ceiling and along sidewall areas.) z c Waldron Shale 9-13 Lower levels of the quarry encom• <[ ... pass all the quarry extending under the ::::1 Louisville Zoo (Subareas F, G, and H), cr (/) that portion of the quarry extending westward to Poplar Level Road (Sub• ...J Q) area E), and the portion of the quarry (/) "C "C extending under the Watterson Ex• pressway (Subareas B and C). On the lower bench, pillar and sidewall heights vary from 65 ft to as much as 80 ft. Louisville limestone, Waldron shale, and Laurel Laurel dolomite are exposed in the pil• Dolomite lars and on the sidewalls. Conditions on the lower levels of the quarry are shown in Figures 4 through 6. Figure 4 shows Subarea B of the quarry, located west of Subarea A. Two bench levels are visible, with Subarea A, on the upper level, in the back• ground. Pillars in the foreground are 65 ft high. The first bench is developed at the base of the Waldron shale. Subarea C is an area of old workings, Figure I. Geologic column for the vicinity of the Louisville Crushed Stone Company quarry. which extends under the Watterson Vol ume 8, Number 3, 1984 UNDERGROUND SPACE 197 LEGEliD fi!i) .u:/M.BE2e0 PILLAR (5:I:.:t:\ EAA?P (.4uoiV pornb tJD,un rotrtp) c;::::::\l /(/All eLEYATIO.U c(/.b• sh ll¢4'r 6br:llten) _,...-..- 1UATE2 SEERIJG£ 1-KXE OP02CU!ILLE0 eltl .eUVII/WG JUATB? SCJ(.I£CE 'f:EA$18/UIT .STl.IOI' ,rae U.UOEeGerJl/11/0 .sAIJCE Ulll/?ATKW' P"'p0r«l' b<; th lJI'p r.sdq of /.tJUdWI/,, h. 1982 I QUARRY Al?EAS I tlUARRI /AJOUSTR/41.. FEAS/8/L/Tf 5TL!OY THEMETEO v aJAISULTIJJG GROUP 04ff f:IGL!RE A.C •- ·c -- • rt...fl_j----Lj FEB I 2-8 ---J;·i;.,:tl-'£ - G C M---------- ------- , :_ ( - ·: ! !!1!4 . ,w . .l.. -- Figure 2. Bounda-ries and subareas of the Louisville quarry. bench, is deteriorating from cyclic wet• ting and drying attributable to seasonal variations in humidity. Deterioration and falling chunks of Waldron shale have led to the formation of large over• hangs (some as large as 6 ft) in the overlying Louisville limestone. Figure 7 shows an overhang developed above the Waldron shale in a pillar located near the base of the shale pile in Sub• area G. In addition to the problem of shale deterioration, many tall pillars on the lower bench are quite ragged in ap• pearance, i.e., contain an abundance of loose, small rock. One such pillar, lo• cated in Subarea C, is shown in Figure 8. Also, in many locations on the lower level, pillars have been left connected .._ _ at their bases by unmined Laurel do• .