In order to meet the high requirements of marine environmental protection and Eurocodes, based on the actual construction conditions of deep water on site in Croatia, the extra-long steel pile foundation was adopted to Pelješac Bridge. At the meantime the corresponding extra-large scale pile driving barge had to be used to carried out during the construction. The pile bearing capacity was analyzed and checked by the actual measured PDA (Pile Driving Analyzer) data. The test results showed that the toe bearing capacity of driven piles had linear relationship with blow counts, and the penetration (displacement/blow) before the stoppage was inversely proportional to toe bearing capacity. In addition, the traditional empirical formula of long-term pile bearing capacity of driven piles was only suitable for the piles, which were shorter than 100m. The stoppage criteria of extra-long pile should concentrate on penetration firstly, while the pile design elevation was subsidiary factor. Therefore, the analysis of pile driving procedure and results could be considered as significant actual engineering reference for the coming works.

driven piles, blow counts, penetration, long-term bearing capacity