When considering foundations for high-rise buildings in urban areas a major task is the reduction of settlements and differential settlements of new structures and adjacent buildings to ensure their safety and serviceability. In many cases the soil conditions can lead to deep foundations in order to transfer the high loads of the buildings into deep soil strata with higher bearing capacities. Compared to traditional pile foundations where building loads are assumed to be transferred to the soil only by piles, the Combined Pile-Raft Foundation (CPRF) consists of the three bearing elements piles, raft and subsoil. The load share between piles and raft is taken into consideration and the piles can be used up to a load level which is much greater than the bearing capacity of a comparable single pile. This design concept leads to a considerable cost reduction for foundations of more than 50 % compared to the traditional pile foundation
