King County Regional Justice Center King County Department of Adult Detention
HWA GeoSciences Inc. provided geotechnical engineering services in support of the King County Regional Justice Center project design. The project involved construction of a 5-story courthouse building, two 2-story detention support buildings, a 3-level parking structure and numerous 2-story housing units on the roughly 19-acre site. The scope of work included evaluation of site subsurface conditions, and engineering evaluations related to settlement potential, preload design, foundation requirements, and site seismicity/liquefaction potential. The subsurface exploration program included several cone penetrometer test soundings with pore pressure measurements (CPTu), and exploratory borings for "ground proofing" the CPTu data, and soil sampling. This approach provided an excellent characterization of site stratigraphy for use in settlement, pile design and liquefaction potential analyses, and also resulted in a significant savings in exploration costs. Several alternatives were evaluated for foundation support of the structures. For the 2-story detention support, housing and parking garage structures, a significant cost savings was realized by preloading the bearing soils and then using conventional spread footing foundations. The preload was placed and monitored in three separate phases to accommodate the project schedule and to minimize the total yardage of preload fill imported to the site. The heavier courts building structure was supported on driven steel pipe piles. A significant liquefaction potential exists within the upper 20 to 30 feet of site subsoils. Evaluation of mitigation measures such as ground improvement using resonant compaction or stone columns was provided. HWA also provided geotechnical engineering services during construction, including preload design and during-construction observation and testing of preloading, pile driving and other geotechnical-intensive project elements.
Other Notable Projects:
U.S. Embassy in Conakry, Guinea U.S. State Department
King County Regional Communications and Emergency Coordination Center King County Construction & Facilities Management
Public Health Laboratories Addition Washington State Department of Health
Health Sciences Building At Riverpoint Washington State Department of General Administration
Western State Hospital Legal Offenders’ Unit Washington State Department of Corrections
Lowman Building Seismic Upgrade United Development Company
HWA GeoSciences Inc. provided geotechnical engineering services in support of the King County Regional Justice Center project design. The project involved construction of a 5-story courthouse building, two 2-story detention support buildings, a 3-level parking structure and numerous 2-story housing units on the roughly 19-acre site. The scope of work included evaluation of site subsurface conditions, and engineering evaluations related to settlement potential, preload design, foundation requirements, and site seismicity/liquefaction potential. The subsurface exploration program included several cone penetrometer test soundings with pore pressure measurements (CPTu), and exploratory borings for "ground proofing" the CPTu data, and soil sampling. This approach provided an excellent characterization of site stratigraphy for use in settlement, pile design and liquefaction potential analyses, and also resulted in a significant savings in exploration costs. Several alternatives were evaluated for foundation support of the structures. For the 2-story detention support, housing and parking garage structures, a significant cost savings was realized by preloading the bearing soils and then using conventional spread footing foundations. The preload was placed and monitored in three separate phases to accommodate the project schedule and to minimize the total yardage of preload fill imported to the site. The heavier courts building structure was supported on driven steel pipe piles. A significant liquefaction potential exists within the upper 20 to 30 feet of site subsoils. Evaluation of mitigation measures such as ground improvement using resonant compaction or stone columns was provided. HWA also provided geotechnical engineering services during construction, including preload design and during-construction observation and testing of preloading, pile driving and other geotechnical-intensive project elements.