WPXI, Pittsburgh PA

On the north side of Pittsburgh, PA along Interstate 279, television studio WPXI planned to construct a multi-story building and satellite dish farm. The location, a former construction fill site, covered an area of approximately 40,000 square feet.

The challenge for the proposed site was the thick layer of fill material that varied in depth and composition from one end of the site to the other. The fill had the potential for large differential settlement across the site.

The initial design called for the building to be placed on concrete drilled shafts. Removal and replacement of the fill was not practical due to the depth the fill extended.

A ground improvement technology - Dynamic Compaction, was ultimately suggested by the owner's engineer and was determined to be the most economical solution for the site.

DGI-Menard completed the Dynamic Compaction project in 2006.

Get to Know

Justin LaBrozzi was hired as a project engineer in May 2004. As a project engineer, Justin is responsible for bidding projects, which includes estimation and proposal preparation. Justin also performs design calculations and prepares shop drawings and technical specifications. On the operations side, Justin is involved in quality control management and site technical support.

Justin is a graduate of the University of Pittsburgh with a B.S. in Civil Engineering and an M.S. in Geotechnical Engineering.

In his spare time, Justin likes to golf. In July, he participated, as a company sponsored golfer, in the Deep Foundations Institute (DFI) Educational Trust golf event. This nonprofit, charitable foundation holds annual golf outings to raise money for students considering a career in the design and construction of deep foundations.

Noteworthy

• Justin LaBrozzi and Frederic Masse of DGI-Menard and Charles Spaulding of Austress-Menard Pty. Ltd., the Australian division of Menard Soltraitment, had a paper on Ground Improvement Technologies for a Sustainable World, featured in the April 2008 edition of Civil Engineering, and presented the paper at the 9th GeoCongress in New Orleans sponsored by the ASCE.
• Marty Taube, director of business development, had his paper entitled
  Prefabricated Vertical Drains – The Squeeze Is On, featured in Geo-Strata magazine, April 2008.