Levelift Foundations LLC

General Contractor:

Steel Building Specialists

Scope Of Work

Pleasure Cove Marina is constructing a 48,000 sq ft, 46′ tall, pre-engineered metal building to serve as an indoor boat storage and maintenance facility. The new building will be subject to coastal wind loading throughout its life span; creating large overturning moments in the foundations. Soil borings indicated poorly graded sands to depths of 5-20 feet below grade and  water was encountered approximately 10 feet below grade. Borings also identified a compressible layer of organic silt and peat beneath the sand cover at depths of 6-13 feet below grade. A deep foundation system was required to transfer the vertical forces through the organic layer to firm bearing soils. Helical piles were selected by the design team as the most economical solution for this project.

Solution:
A pre-production SS175 helical pile, 8/10/12 lead section with a 5″ diameter PullDown grout column, was installed to a refusal torque of 10,000 ft-lbs. The following week the test pile was loaded to 101.7kips in compression and a total deflection of 0.47″ was recorded. Based on the criteria established by the pre-construction testing, over 400 SS175 Chance helical piles were installed to support the reinforced concrete building foundations. The pile terminations, embedded in the reinforced concrete, consisted of welded plates on the uplift resistant piles and C150-0459 new construction brackets for the compression only piles. The speed of helical pile installation allowed for lay-out in the morning with concrete placement in the afternoon.