Project Details:

Solution:

The original design called for driven steel piles, however, this technique was considered to be impractical due to the substantial noise and vibration resulting from the pile-driving technique. Menard provided a more economical and time-saving solution with CMCs. CMCs terminated at a much shallower depth (range from 45 ft to 75 ft) than the original design, which called for 100-ft long driven piles.

Menard installed 269 CMCs to support the conference center with an additional 25 CMCs to support a tower crane west of the building footprint. CMCs were designed for 200 kips Axial, 70 kips uplift, and 10 kips lateral. Reinforcing steel (Grade 75 #11 bar) and a 4-in by 4-in grade 60 plate was added to each CMC to account for lateral and uplift loads. The design provided for post-construction settlements of ½-in total between adjacent columns, meeting the performance criteria of the new building. Load testing was successfully performed to 400 kips.

Menard successfully installed the CMCs despite challenging working conditions that included the need for additional equipment, the general contractors crawl crane, and previously unknown utilities including a gas line on the East side of the site and a telecommunications/fiber optic line on the western side.

The ground improvement for both the conference center and crane pad were successfully completed in June of 2022, highlighted by the collaboration of the crew on site and assistance from Menard’s office personnel.

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