The construction process for Rammed Aggregate Pier® elements is project friendly in terms of simplicity, speed, cost, and reliability. The following illustrates the construction process:

The Vertical Ramming Process

1. Predrilling allows you to see the soil between borings ensuring that the piers are stabilizing the right soils.
2. Each layer of aggregate is placed in thin lifts and rammed with vertical impact energy, creating a high degree of compaction, resulting in high strength and stiffness.
3. The patented Geopier beveled tamper forces the thin lifts of aggregate into cavity sidewalls resulting in excellent coupling and superior settlement control.

• The three-step process continues until the Rammed Aggregate Pier is constructed. The high-energy compaction process produces significant lateral prestraining and prestressing of the adjacent matrix soils that increases the lateral stress in the adjacent soils. The improved soils essentially "grab and hold" the very stiff Rammed Aggregate Pier® element and, thus, improve the strength and stiffness of the combined pier-soil system.
• Pier cavities are typically excavated by conventional drilling techniques, using either truck-mounted auguring equipment or "dangle drill" equipment mounted on an excavator or crane.
• Since Rammed Aggregate Pier® elements are constructed in pre-excavated cavities, there is essentially no remolding of the surrounding soils, as occurs with other stone column techniques. Hence, with the Geopier technique the surrounding soils cannot experience strength loss due to the construction methods, but rather gain a significant increase in stiffness as each lift of aggregate is rammed. Other aggregate pier systems simply cannot achieve this result.
• By constructing Rammed Aggregate Pier® elements in clusters spaced from about 1½ to 3 diameters apart, the Geopier-reinforced soil mass experiences significant permanent prestressing, which greatly improves its strength and consolidation characteristics (extending several feet beyond the outside piers). Hence, the so-called "group effect" is very desirable for the Geopier system because it improves performance.