Search Documents

By Jeff Hopple

"Bluestone Dam in Hinton, W.Va., along the New River, is owned and operated by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers (USACE). Completed in 1949, the dam is 165 ft (50 m) tall, 2,048 ft (624 m) wide, and encompasses a water shed that is 4,600 sq mi (11,914 sq km). The Bluestone Dam Safety Assurance (DSA) Program began in 2001, and is a multiple-phase construction project to upgrade the capacity and stability of the structure to meet the probable maximum flood event. Installing 216 high capacity rock anchors was a major feature of the work.The USACE selected Brayman Construction Corporation to perform Phase 2B of the construction modifications to the Bluestone Dam. Brayman was responsible for installing the high capacity rock anchors, which range in size from 3 to 61 strands and have a design load up to 2,145 kips (9,541 kN). Drill holes range in size from 6.5 to 15 in (16.5 to 38 cm), and required full length corrosion protection. Of the 216 anchors, 57 were installed on top of the dam to resist overturning and the remaining 159 were installed on the face of the dam at a 45-degree angle to resist sliding.To gain access to the face of the dam anchor locations, the project required dirt benches, excavations with temporary shoring, and steel platforms. To access anchors on the east and west abutment faces, the team excavated over 10,000 cu yds (7,645 cu m) of material. Support of these excavations included the design and installation of three soil nail walls with over 145 nails and 3,500 sq ft (325 sq m) of shotcrete. The project also called for a 780 ft (237 m) long steel platform to gain access to the spillway anchors. The Stratus Group designed the platform to support two 85 ton (80 tonne) crawler cranes and as many as five drill rigs that were the equivalent to a design load of 3.5 ton per sq ft (335 kN per sq m). Once the final platform design was approved, fabrication of roughly 3 million lbs (1,360 tonnes) of structural steel began. Brayman’s in-house fabrication shop, in conjunction with Dura-Bond Industries and Advantage Steel, collaborated to fabricate and install the platform in less than five months. Flexibility in the platform design allowed for sections of the platform to be lowered as much as 16 ft (4.9 m) to provide access to anchors at lower elevations along the spillway face. In addition to the main spillway platform, Stratus Group, Brayman, Dura-Bond and Advantage designed, fabricated and installed six other unique platforms to facilitate anchor construction on various areas of the dam."

Jan 1, 2014

By Andrew Baxter

This paper focuses on the design of steel bearing plates to transfer load from tiebacks and tiedowns to a concrete mass. It lists and describes the various available procedures for design of bearing plates as well as explains the design procedure recommended by the authors, which incorporates the Post Tensioning Institute (PTI) recommendations. The paper includes a step-by-step design example following the recommended procedure that captures the most important aspects of plate design. The dimensions of the plate calculated from this example are compared to the design dimensions obtained from various other procedures, including those by American Association of State Highway and Transportation Officials (AASHTO) and VSL International, Ltd. (VSL). The paper also includes the results of numerical modeling of the plate that will help the reader understand important aspects of plate-concrete interaction. The authors envision that this paper will serve to create an understanding in the geo-industry of suitable design methods and help improve procurement of bearing plates for tiebacks and tiedowns.

By F. Keith Jacobson

To be involved in the construction of a deep dredged caisson for a major bridge pier is one of the most rewarding and professionally challenging experiences one can have in the bridge construction business. That experience was doubled in the construction of the two deep dredged caissons for the Highway 82 Bridge over the Mississippi River near Greenville, Mississippi. The challenges and the construction risks associated with constructing these two dredged caisson pier foundations highlight the construction engineering innovation associated with major bridge pier construction. The 1,378-foot Main Span of the Highway 82 Bridge makes it the longest cable stayed bridge span over the inland rivers of the United States. The main piers for this bridge are supported on two dredged caissons measuring 80-feet by 122-feet in plan, founding 200-feet and 170-feet below the river surface. The challenges of constructing these caisson structures, sinking them through 70-feet of water to the river bottom and then excavating and further sinking them to the founding grade without exceeding the design tolerances, were enormous. The construction engineering opportunities for innovation included major breakwater structures to create a friendly environment in 11 fUsec currents, the first time use of Articulated Concrete Mattresses for river bottom scour control, unique air dome design to maximize the buoyancy of the caisson structure while floating, a caisson guide system to assure positive control and positioning of the caisson during the initial sinking phases. and a comprehensive sinking plan to assure maximum control and minimum risk. Many of the innovative solutions to the construction challenges on this bridge will be incorporated into future caisson construction projects on the lower Mississippi River.

May 11, 2007

By Babu K. V., Samyukta P.

The energy demand in India is expected to show increasing growth in the next few decades. The oil companies in India are revamping the existing oil refineries as well as constructing new refineries across the country to meet the energy demands. Most of the refineries in India are located along the coastal region because of the ease of transporting crude materials. Considering the criticality of the structures as well as soil conditions in the coastal region, pile foundations are used in refinery plants. In India, non-displacement piles in the form of bored cast-in-situ piles are used to support structures. In a few circumstances, displacement piles in the form of driven cast-in-situ piles are also being used to support critical structures. This study presents the performance of non-displacement and displacement piles for similar ground conditions at the same project location. The pile load test results have shown that the settlement observed for displacement piles is lower than compared to non- displacement piles for a given loading and soil conditions. This shows that the performance of displacement piles is slightly better in comparison with that of non-displacement piles.

Sep 1, 2022

By Richard D. Luark, Fernanda S. Madrona

Deep foundation construction in highly developed urban settings pose unique challenges of working with deep excavations in a relatively confined area while preserving the integrity of nearby structures. For construction of the below grade parking for two, 40-story residential high-rise towers, shoring walls were required to support the maximum 70-foot-deep vertical excavation in downtown Seattle, Washington. The design of the excavation support system consisted of soil nails combined with closely spaced vertical elements to allow the top row of soil nails to be installed up to 10 feet below the ground surface avoiding conflicts with adjacent underground utilities. To limit deflections next to a seven-story building, the upper rows of soil nails were post tensioned. An instrumentation program was implemented to monitor the deflections in the shoring walls by means of vertical inclinometers and optical survey monitoring. The shoring wall performance, designed to limit deflection to less than 1-inch to meet the City of Seattle requirements, was validated by the instrumentation program. This paper provides a discussion of the design and construction of the shoring walls as well as the monitoring data collected from the instrumentation system. PROJECT INFORMATION The project consisted of two residential high-rise towers, with five levels of below grade parking, located at 707 Terry Avenue Seattle, Washington. The project site covers a half city block, approximately 120 feet by 240 feet, and is bounded by Terry Avenue to the east, Columbia Street to the north, Cherry Street to the south, and an alley to the West. Prior to the development, site was occupied by surface parking. A 7-story concrete building with two stories of below grade parking, owned by the Archdiocese of Seattle is located just west of the 16-foot-wide alley. Numerous below grade utilities consisting of electrical, telecommunications, gas, water, sanitary sewer, steam, and storm drains, surround the project. The perimeter below grade parking walls extended within inches of the property boundaries. Topographic relief across the site was on the order of 8 feet. Figure 1 illustrates the site plan view.

Jan 1, 2019

By Richard Berry

The spacing of grout injections is typically about 2 to 2 V½ meters if the purpose of the grouting is densification of the in-situ soils. Hole spacing will vary with the in-situ soil properties and the grout injection rate; faster rates requiring closer hole spacing.

Feb 10, 2003

By Braxton P. Erbe, Douglas C. Brunot

A variety of systems and techniques exist to support deep excavations where sloping is not feasible. This paper will explore an example project involving the use of pre-engineered hydraulic bracing systems to support sheet pile walls. Challenges on site that drove the final design include a high water table, irregular excavation geometry, and underground obstructions. The hydraulic system, connected by pins and not requiring welds, allowed for quick deployment and the modularity to change as required due to unforeseen site conditions.

By David J. Puller

As part of the value engineering process on a major Design Build highway project, instrumented trial pile load tests were used to achieve savings in cost and time on the foundations for a major river crossing. Two trial piles were tested close to failure load at 25MN. Following the interpretation of the pile load test results which included the determination of the ultimate shaft and base capacity, the mobilisation of the shaft and base resistance with pile displacement, and correlations with vertical effective stress and SPT profile, a revised design methodology was proposed. A 25% enhancement on commonly assumed ultimate shaft friction in Chalk was adopted. In addition a significant reduction in the Factor of Safety on end-bearing capacity generally used was also implemented. The revised design resulted in a significant cost and time saving on the piling operation with the pile length reduced by up to 6m (approx. 20%) for the river piers.

Jan 1, 2002

By Dennis Wrixon

It was a little bit exceeded. The decision was the uniform settlement is measured at each one corner and the highest one corner is the important one. And in addition there is a differential settlement of 2.1 mm allowed. So we reached about 7.8 or 7.9 mm with the highest corner and in addition 2.1 so it was a little too much. But behind there is a very difficult calculation of the authorities where all of the displacements are combined together and there are of course some more factors of safety in these settlements.

Feb 10, 2003

By Luca Pingue, Regine Jagow-Klaff, Franco Muratore, Carlandrea Albonico, Damiano Frontini, Rudolf Wernecké

This paper describes an artificial ground freezing (AGF) application carried out to ensure both watertightness and structural support for the safe excavation of four cross passages of the Forrestfield Airport Link (FAL) project in Perth. The line will deliver 8.5 km extension of the existing urban rail network connecting the growing eastern suburbs of Perth with the existing suburban rail network. The proposed soil improvement technique is adopted as a smart alternative to jet grouting from the surface since the use of heavy equipment with long vertical mast was not allowed due to the line underpassing an airport in operation. In this paper, details of the challenges and lessons learned during both design and construction phases are given. Furthermore, it is described the geometry and the installation of freeze pipes in presence of a massive steel frame, ventilation system and slurry pipes of the tunnel boring machine (TBM) in operation. It is also illustrated the web monitoring system to allow key personnel to follow in real time the development of soil temperatures, tunnel convergences and ground surface deformations as well as changes in the interaction between international parties involved due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

May 1, 2022

By Muhannad T. Suleiman

The design of deep foundations supporting heavy buildings, bridges, transmission lines, and highway structures, is governed by lateral loads in many cases. However, due to the use of empirical or semiempirical approaches to develop the soil force-displacement relationships (i.e., p-y curves), a wide range of recommendations are presented in the literature. Recent efforts by the author and co-workers enabled simultaneous direct measurements of soil-pile interaction pressure and lateral movement along the pile length, resulting in p-y curves based on direct measurement. Advanced sensors including sheet pressure sensors and shape acceleration arrays were used in these experiments. The experiments were conducted at the Soil-Structure Interaction (SSI) facility funded by the Major Research Instrumentation Program at the National Science Foundation. This paper focuses on the SSI of single laterally loaded piles. The test pile was 101.6 mm in diameter and 1.42 m long, which were installed in well-graded loose sand. This paper provides a summary of the installation and testing procedures, soil properties, pile instrumentation, measured lateral load-displacement response, strain profile along the pile length, lateral movement along the pile length and the pressures measured at the soil-pile interface. Furthermore, the paper presents measured p-y curves compared to estimated p-y curves using empirical methods available in the literature.

Jan 1, 2011

By Philip Derbyshire, Dale J. Scheffler

"Continuous Flight Auger (CFA) piling is a variation of Augered Cast-In-Place (ACIP) or augercast piling. In both cases a continuous auger with a hollow stem is used to drill a hole and a pile is formed by injection of cementitious material through the hollow stem as the auger is withdrawn. CFA differs from conventional American ACIP by the use of concrete rather than grout to form the pile, and by the type of equipment used to advance the auger into the ground and withdraw it. CFA installation uses a European style rig (i.e. fixed mast and rotary system) which can produce greater crowd and usually has a larger rotator or drill motor than the standard augercast setup. A standard augercast setup will consist of a lattice-boom crane and a set of leads to house the drill motor and auger. The auger size will range up to 24 inches (610mm). With CFA rigs larger diameter piles can be constructed, 24 to 36 in dia. (610mm to 915mm) are common and the technique has been applied with diameters up to 48-inch (1220mm). CFA makes use of sophisticated computer controlled monitoring systems, which have more recently been introduced for conventional ACIP piling. Developments in CFA have taken place over the last 25 years in Europe and particularly in the UK, but are relatively new in the USA. One application is in the construction of secant (overlapping) piled retaining walls. D.J. Scheffler Inc. recognized the potential of the CFA system following visits to the UK and has introduced its use into California for both secant piling and other applications.BACKGROUNDThe high price of real estate in many of the favored areas of California has increasingly led owners to want to build basements under their houses to increase the floor space available on a lot. Many of these areas are by the coast where the ground conditions are predominately granular and the water table is high. Conventional shoring and dewatering systems have often caused problems with adjoining properties. Clearly tangent walls are not suitable in these conditions because of leakage and loss of ground. The secant pile system, using CFA techniques, has proved very effective at overcoming the problems experienced by other methods. Other applications for CFA secant walls have included use for an emergency job on a highway following erosion caused by unusually heavy rainfall.METHODThe concept of secanting piles, whereby primary(female) piles are installed first and then secondary (male) piles are cut into the primary piles is not new. The method has been known for more than 30 years. Originally ‘Benoto’ grabbing rigs, developed in Japan, were used together with sectionalized double skinned casing and oscillators.This early method was slow, although very effective. More recently high torque rotary machines have been used. Contractors in the UK have increasingly used CFA techniques to further improve productivity of this type of piled wall. The improved capabilities of piling rigs available, as well as developments in concrete technology and instrumentation, have made this possible."

Jan 1, 2005

By Prasanta Paul, Aminul Islam

"Nhava Sheva (India) Gateway Terminal Private Limited proposed to construct a container terminal yard, comprising a back-up area at Jawaharlal Nehru Port Terminal (JNPT), Uran, Maharashtra. The proposed container terminal yard is located on a recent reclamation on the Thane Creek, which was developed by land-based reclamation method. The underneath soft marine clay was treated, using vertical band drains and placement of surcharge upon.Settlement of the reclamation during its construction was monitored using settlement plate installed at +4.8m CD elevation which was above the highest high water level.This paper examines the settlement behaviour of the reclamation during the ground improvement works. The geotechnical parameters are back-analyzed by the authors from the field settlement results and the concerned preloading details. The back analyzed coefficients of consolidation due to horizontal flow (Ch) are compared with laboratory determined parameters and the estimated value, using Asaoka Method (1978). The authors also studied field compression ratio [CR= Cc/(1+e0)] vs. the compression ratio determined by laboratory test using back-analysis method.1. INTRODUCTIONNhava Sheva (India) Gateway Terminal Private Limited proposed to construct a container terminal yard, comprising a back-up area of approximately 27 hectares, complete with associated buildings and services on a part brownfield/ greenfield site. The back-up area shall include a heavy duty block paved pavement with band beams for electric Rubber-Tyred Gantry Crane (eRTGC) alongwith surface water drainage system and other services including area lighting, provision of fire-fighting facilities , sources for potable water and power.Based on the Employer’s Requirement and the available geotechnical investigation report, ground improvement scheme is designed by the construction contractor. Ground improvement works included the installation of prefabricated vertical drains and subsequent placement of surcharge for accelerating the consolidation of the underlying soft marine clay."

Jan 1, 2015

By Rob Jameson

"Although seismic retrofit is recognized as a key micropile application, widely-used reference documents do not clearly address design and testing recommendations for micropiles that are loaded primarily under seismic conditions. The principles of micropile design and construction and their application to seismic retrofit projects are well understood and executed by leaders in the field. As the micropiling market grows, a wider audience relies on the information presented by DFI and similar industry groups. State-of-practice updates appear periodically in conference proceedings, but examination of recent bid documents makes it clear that there are opportunities to improve the specification of load, deflection, testing and acceptance criteria on many seismic retrofit projects. Updates to the FHWA Manual or DFI Sample Specification that specifically address seismic retrofit cases would be useful tools to disseminate information and enhance the state of practice.Micropile Survey UnderwayAs one step in this process, I am distributing surveys to contractors and designers prior to DFI Super Pile ’09 (June 4-6, San Francisco) seeking recommendations for design and testing procedures applicable to seismically loaded micropiles. I am also requesting any existing references that could be promoted as a standard for these cases. Anyone interested in participating in this survey, should contact me at rjameson@malcolmdrilling.com. Seismic RetrofittingMicropiles are ideally suited to seismic retrofit applications. Their high-tensile and compressive capacity can sustain the large concentrated loads induced during seismic events. They can be installed within and around the access limitations of existing structures, and can be drilled through and grouted into the wide variety of soil and rock materials encountered in seismically active zones.Seismic retrofits have included micropiles since the early 1990s, and they are now widely specified in the Western U.S. In the San Francisco Bay Area alone, thousands of micropiles have been installed for seismic upgrades of highway and transit aerial structures, and retrofits of commercial, residential and public buildings. Micropile use is growing in both public and private sectors, with large-scale retrofit projects currently underway for both the Bay Area Rapid Transit (BART) system-wide upgrades and renovations at San Francisco Airport."

Jan 1, 2009

By Paul Pedini

The challenge of Contract C19E1 of Boston's Central Artery Project called for the construction of two roadways under the commuter rail yard at North Station. Two options were offered for the method of their construction: Slurry Wall Roof-First or Soft Ground Tunneling. The instability of the indigenous soils seemed to rule out the use of tunneling, so the slurry wall method was chosen. However, these soils were incapable of holding up during slurry trench excavation. After many episodes of ground loss on early panel excavations, Modem Continental Construction suggested a method of trench wall stabilization. The Contractor (MCC) both suggested wall stabilization method and requested that the owner participate in the funding for the effort. The Project and the Contractor were able to agree on a solution which resulted in collapse-free excavation...and found an innovative way to fund the solution.

Jan 1, 2002

By Leena Korkiala-Tanttu, Ilkka Vähäaho, Juha Forsman, Paavo Lahdenperä, Kalle Rantala, Osmo Korhonen

"District of Arabianranta (Helsinki, Finland) has been founded on an old seabed, which was filled with miscellaneous soil materials. The subsoil consists of very low shear strength clays and organic clays (gyttjas). The soil was moving towards the sea at a rate of 1050 mm/year, because of filling on top of the soft subsoil. In the middle of 1990’s it was decided to build a residential area to Arabianranta, because it is located only 5 km away from the downtown. To inhibit the movement of soil, it was planned to build this 700 m long deep mixed column-wall barrier along the shore of Arabianranta in the years 1997–2005. A lot of instrumentation and inclinometers were analyzed and it was noticed that the column-wall remains at its place and the displacement rate inside the wall has been only 0.44.6 mm/year after construction works. Nevertheless, the displacement of soil at the landward side of the column-wall is still 1.25.1 mm/year. The soil at the seaside of the barrier is also moving towards the sea 12.922.2 mm/year. Another problem might be displacements of soil near the places where the column-wall ends (tails).1. INTRODUCTIONArabianranta district (Helsinki, Finland) has been an industrial, storage and wasteland area for a long time. Developing this area into a residential area was earlier considered too expensive, so it has been constructed during last decade. The organic clay layers (gyttjas), which have weak shear strength and high water content, were covered by various layers of fillings done in different phases. Because of the fillings, the area was not only consolidating, but also moving horizontally 1050 mm/year towards the sea due to the fact that the frictional soil under clay layers slopes towards the sea. A trial deep mixed structure was constructed in 1997 to inhibit the horizontal displacements of soil. The actual construction of the columnwall was completed in 2000-2005 with overlapping deep mixed cement columns on the seaward boundary. The barrier was built so that the horizontal movements would not risk the pile foundations at Arabianranta. The length of the barrier is about 680 m and width varies between 1220 m. There is a great amount of instrumentation near the barrier (inclinometer casings and other measuring devices). All this measuring information has been collected and analysed at 2014 to find out how this deep mixed column-wall has affected the horizontal displacements."

Jan 1, 2015

By Randy R. Williams, Brian W. Wilson, George M. Filz, Marina S. W. Li

"Detailed design of an extensive deep mixing (DM) scheme using the Cutter Soil Mixing (CSM) technique was completed for foundation support of mechanically stabilized earth (MSE) walls for Kitimat Liquefied Natural Gas (LNG) at Bish Cove, British Columbia, Canada. The design was based on the provision of soil-cement structures, constructed in highly variable subsurface conditions that consisted of thick deposits of fine-grained soils overlying granular soils, and required to meet project-specific performance criteria, to support the MSE walls. The design, consisting of rectangular CSM panels constructed to form barrettes connecting to a longitudinal wall of continuous CSM panels, was configured to manage the distribution of stresses and strains that could be developed within the soil-cement structure.The results from 2D finite element analyses were used to determine the necessary arrangement and properties of the CSM panels to accommodate localized areas of relatively high shear, tensile and compressive stresses within the soil-cement structure. The relationships between unconfined compressive strength and elastic modulus for fine-grained and granular soil-cement structures obtained from the Bish Cove data were compared with published references and were found to be significantly different in the higher strength range materials.BACKGROUNDDeep Mixing design was completed for the development of the Kitimat LNG Facility located in Bish Cove, British Columbia, for support of two relatively high MSE walls and associated bulk earthwork operations. Deep mixing was necessary to treat the very weak native deposits in-situ to meet project performance requirements and physical constraints without the need for significant excavation and disposal work. The DM design was undertaken on the basis of adoption of the CSM technique for in-situ ground improvement of the native foundation soils which consisted of very soft to soft fine-grained marine deposits and loose to compact sandy silt to silty sand, overlying dense sand and gravel (Fig. 1). The DM area is located immediately upslope of the Bish Cove beach area, and is “L” shaped in plan, approximately 300 m long by approximately 28.8 m wide (parallel to the beach area) and 165 m long by an average width of 21.0 m (perpendicular to the beach area). The depth of the DM ranged from about 5.0 m to 30.7 m with typically 2.0 m embedment into dense granular soils. Details of the design philosophy, including an overview of the DM design and the project background information are presented by Li et al. (2014a). Details of the construction aspects of the Kitimat LNG deep mixing are presented by Wilson et al. (2014)."

Jan 1, 2015

By Amy B. Cerato, Shawn Allred, Tatiana Vargas

"Helical piles are deep foundation elements that resemble, and are installed like, a large steel soil screw — they have a slender steel shaft with one or more round helix bearing plates welded to the shaft to provide support to the structure they hold. Helical piles are rotated into the ground with a large torque motor and provide support through soil bearing on the helix bearing plates and along the shaft. The piles are available in many lengths and, due to their small footprint along with their ability to create minimal disturbance to surrounding structures, they are often used in urban settings for foundation repair, retrofitting existing buildings and for new construction projects. Helical piles are routinely installed as foundation elements in seismically active areas, such as New Zealand, Japan and the U.S.Anecdotal observations (e.g., from New Zealand, Japan and the U.S.) have shown that piles with a comparatively small cross-section and high anchoring capacity, such as helical piles, are beneficial for seismic resistance. This is presumably due to the pile’s slenderness, higher damping ratios, ductility and resistance to tipping uplift. In New Zealand, it was observed that helical pile foundations fared much better than driven and drilled concrete piles after the 2011 Christchurch earthquake. In a personal communication, Woods (2016) described that, out of the 300 structures in center city Christchurch that were supported by helical piles, fewer than 10 structures suffered significant structural damage. However, many structures supported by driven and drilled concrete piles were damaged to such an extent that they were condemned and subsequently demolished."

Jan 1, 2017

By David R. Black

Foundation problems due to collapsible and expansive soils are well known throughout the arid western United States. Millions of dollars are spent annually to counteract the effects of such soils for both new foundations and existing foundations suffering from settlement or heave. Over the last 20 years helical screw piles have come into wide-spread use as a permanent deep foundation element for these problem soils, especially in the arid western United States where, in some areas, they are a standard of practice. Independent research resulting in recognition by every national building code in the United States has legitimized helical screw pile technology. Once thought of in terms of light structural underpinning, helical screw piles of today are designed to take heavy structural loads, vertical and lateral, tension or compression, including seismic loads. With proper pile grouping, design capacities for column loads over 4,500 kN (1,000 kips) are attainable. This paper discusses design considerations specifically dealing with collapsible and expansive soils: soil investigation parameters, predicted settlement and long-term creep, heave in expansive soils, downdrag in collapsible soils, shaft slenderness buckling, maintaining shaft alignment during installation, refusal condition, water migration along the shaft, lateral loading, cyclical loading for seismic loads and machine foundations, corrosion, helix durability during installation, the installation torque vs. capacity equation, and design methodology. The paper concludes with several case histories where helical screw piles were used for new structural foundations and to underpin existing failed foundations in St. George, Utah, Cedar City, Utah, and Denver, Colorado, USA, sites of some of the most expansive clay and collapsible soil in North America. Soil descriptions and performance histories are presented.

Jan 1, 2002

By Alison Savage, Michael Terry

"For decades, the International Market Place (IMP) has been an icon in the heart of Waikiki in Honolulu, Hawaii. It was famous for Duke Kahanamoku’s restaurant where people flocked to hear Don Ho sing in the ’60s and ’70s. Later, it was a bustling, open-air hub of small vendors who peddled everything from Hawaiian souvenirs and jewelry to food court meals and farmer’s market produce. Small buildings and shacks that housed the businesses were located on a curved tract of land — just one block off the beach — that stretches from Kalakaua Avenue to Kuhio Avenue. The entrance to the complex is dominated by a huge, old (circa 1850) Banyan tree. This tract is owned by the Queen Emma Land Company. Queen Emma was a Hawaiian Queen from the 1800s. Revenue from the land has supported the Queen’s Medical Center in Honolulu for decades.The reimagined IMP is owned by Taubman Centers, of Bloomfield Hills, Mich., and CoastWood Capital Group of San Francisco, Calif. The IMP will offer a distinctive collection of upscale fashion and lifestyle retailers, including Hawaii’s only Saks Fifth Avenue store, as well as ten sit-down restaurants, including concepts by award-winning chefs Michael Mina and Roy Yamaguchi. The mall features two large open-air courts, the first of which has the huge Banyan tree as its entryway centerpiece. The second open-air court, called Queen’s Court, includes a stage and mature monkeypod trees and a few palm trees. Foundation SelectionAfter a geotechnical exploration that was directed by SME, Plymouth, Mich., and performed by Geolabs, Honolulu, it was discovered that the historical site had hidden and challenging foundation conditions. The subsurface conditions included a very deep but now in-filled ancient river valley containing more than 180 ft (54.9 m) of lagoonal deposits consisting of normally consolidated plastic clayey silts and silty clays with blow counts mainly varying in N-value from 1 to 6. The silt was underlain by several soft coralline layers, some overconsolidated clays and various basalt layers. The static groundwater level on the site was at a depth of about 5 ft (1.5 m), closely matching sea level.Although driven piles had previously been used as the preferred deep foundation support for adjacent structures, this area of town is now fully developed and local noise ordinances preclude their use. Augercast piles were initially considered, but when the general contractor dck/FWF, Pittsburgh, Pa., asked for bids for the augercast piles, several foundation contractors offered alternate systems. The practical installation depth of augercast piles was limited and due to the depth of the in-filled alluvial valley, this system could likely have left soft silt below the tips of the piles over much of the site."

Jan 1, 2016