Location
1111 Key Highway
Baltimore, MD
Job Description
The project is a two-story daycare building with an adjacent playground. The site is approximately .31 acres of land located in a historic, established townhome community directly across from the iconic Domino Sugar neon sign at Baltimore’s Inner Harbor.
Soil borings identified existing fill soils and soft alluvial native soil materials up to 13’ in some portions of the building footprint. Beneath the loose soil, the native soil is predominantly clay ranging from medium stiff to dense at a depth of 50’ below grade. The loose fill and native soils were not suitable for support of the proposed structure and the geotechnical engineer recommended removal and replacement of the soft soils prior to foundation construction. Removal and replacement of the existing soils to a depth of 13’ would require excavation support (soldier piles and lagging) at the perimeter and excessive truck traffic through the neighborhood. To avoid the costly process of removing and replacing the loose soil to 13’, Levelift Foundations, LLC presented the developer with a helical pile value-engineered solution that allowed the loose material to stay on site and the structural foundations installed at frost depth. Saving time and money for the project.
A total of One Hundred Twenty-nine (129) SS5 8/10/12 piles were installed to support the foundation walls and concrete slab-on-grade. The piles were installed to a refusal torque of 5,000 ft-lbs and an average depth of 14’ below footings and pile caps. A compression load test was performed on a non-production pile. At design load of 20,000 lbs., the SS5 helical pile had a top-of-pile displacement of .20”. At 62,800 lbs. (251% design load) the top-of-pile displacement was .61”. The helical piles were successfully completed on time and within the budget presented to the designers as part of the value-engineered process.