Emerald City Development
Emerald City Development
Project Details:
Owner: Kimberly Clark
General Contractor: Independence Excavating
Date of Work: January 2024 - April 2024
Engineer: Hixson Architecture Engineering
Approximate Key Quantities: Dynamic Compaction 8,367 Point(s)
Description:
Ground Conditions:
Solution:
The depth of the slag fill material, the location of the water table and the risks associated with handling impacted materials, ruled out over-excavation as a possible solution. Installing ground improvement or deep foundations was also viewed as impractical due to the historic foundations, which would require extensive predrilling and removal of foundations within the footprint. Menard provided a more economical and practical solution of performing dynamic compaction to densify soils for the new building.
Menard implemented dynamic compaction for global support across the building footprint to homogenize the top 20 ft of fill material. Craters from the dynamic compaction were recorded between 1-3 ft deep. The dynamic compaction was predicted to improve the bearing capacity to 3,000 psf, which was verified with pre- and post- borings. Upon completion of the 8,367 dynamic compaction prints, 3 ft of additional fill, and two layers of geogrid, was placed above the working elevation and below the slab. The combination of dynamic compaction and geogrids reduced the risk of differential settlements..
Throughout construction, several obstructions were encountered. This included the existence of chambers, which were removed and backfilled. Another obstruction was (presumably) concrete structures below grade. In these areas, Menard eschewed dynamic compaction and recommended further investigation by the contractor.
With all challenges and constraints considered, Menard successfully preformed dynamic compaction to support a proposed 750,000 sq-ft manufacturing facility in Warren, OH.
