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Studies

GRL Engineers offer a wide range of deep foundation testing and consulting services, nationwide. Most GRL Engineers have achieved Advanced Level or higher on both the PDCA/PDI Dynamic Measurement and Analysis Proficiency Test.

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Dynamic Load Testing on Helical Piles

Challenge: The YWCA of Toledo wanted to add 11,000+ sf of usable space by installing a foundation through the existing basement swimming pool to support two new floors being constructed above it. Due to low clearance restrictions within the building structure, micropiles were used in the initial foundation design. The specialty foundation contractor, Toledo Caisson Corporation, realized potential cost savings by utilizing helical piles for the foundation and provided a…

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Multi-Year Testing on Highway I-69

Challenge: The construction of I-69, a major US interstate highway that starts at the bottom of Texas and travels northeast to Michigan and into Ontario, was a multi-decade endeavor and a massive undertaking for the FHWA. GRL Engineers provided a multitude of testing services throughout the state of Indiana. Some of these projects included notable reconstruction on a 67-mile segment in Indiana, as well as the I-69 Finish Line Project,…

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Offshore Wind Farms in New Jersey

Challenge: GRL Engineers were brought onto a research project related to offshore wind to provide deep-foundation expertise. The New Jersey coastline has been expanding its offshore wind efforts since the signing of Executive Order 28 from New Jersey Governor Murphy in 2020. Addressing the potential in South Jersey for wind farms, studies on glauconite soil deposits have been a focal point for various universities. GRL Engineers conducted a driven-pile test…

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Northwest Railroad Bridge Project

Challenge: GRL Engineers provided testing services for one of the largest freight railroads in North America. The Class 1 railroad company decided to build a second rail bridge over the lake, adjacent to the existing rail bridge to relieve the congested condition. The upgrades would allow the trains to run…

Replacement Bridge Over Buffington Road and NFS Railroad

Challenge: South Carolina Department of Transportation (SCDOT) requested bids to replace an existing 60+ year old bridge over Buffington Road / Norfolk Southern Railroad in Spartanburg County, SC. The existing bridge was structurally deficient and did not meet the current SCDOT design standards. E.S. Wagner was contracted to replace the…

I-480 Valley View Bridge Pile Test Program

Challenge: The widening of the I-480 Valley View Bridge was a design-build project for the Ohio Department of Transportation (ODOT), with Walsh Construction as team lead and general contractor, and Jacobs as lead designer. The design-build team chose to develop a design-phase pile test program to quantify the soil setup…

Lake Marion Greenway Trail Boardwalk

Challenge: The Lake Marion Greenway Trail Boardwalk is part of a greenway system that links the Minnesota River to the North Creek Greenway through multiple parks, trails, and reserves. The boardwalk intersects a wetland area in Keller Park, which is referenced as a “high priority natural resource area” by the…

I-4 Ultimate

Challenge: The enormous, 21-mile long, infrastructure project, I-4 Ultimate, consists of 15 major interchange reconstructions, 74 bridge replacements, 13 bridge widenings, and 53 new bridges. Given the variable nature of the typically prevalent geotechnical conditions throughout the I-4 Ultimate project corridor, the selected foundation type to support the various bridges…

Harris County Toll Road Authority SH 249

Challenge: The Harris County Toll Road Authority (HCTRA) project added 4 direct connectors to the existing interchange at SH99 and SH 249. The previous layout of the interchange required vehicles to exit the highway and go through stop lights to get onto an alternate highway, which inevitably caused delays and…

Seattle Center Arena

Challenge: The Seattle Center Arena, recently renamed the Climate Pledge Arena, underwent a complete renovation with the exception of keeping the original roof. The center was originally built in 1962 to host the Seattle World’s Fair. This renovation marked the arena as the first net zero certified arena in the…

Mukilteo Multimodal Ferry Terminal

Challenge: This project in Mukilteo required testing of drilled shafts and driven piles for the ferry terminal foundation. GRL Engineers provided pile driving monitoring of steel pipe piles and crosshole sonic logging of three structural drilled shafts. The previous terminal had been used for over 60 years. The state worked…

Tri-State Tollway Mile-Long Bridge

Challenge: The Mile-Long Bridge has been in use since 1958. It carries up to 150,000 vehicles per day over two major railroads, three waterways, several local roads, and over major distribution centers for UPS and BNSF Railway. The original bridge requires frequent repairs resulting in traffic disruptions as it nears…

North Madison Substation

Challenge: Perform measurements of accelerations and stresses in non-uniform piles during vibratory driving. Analyze and interpret the data as an aid in the investigation of weld fractures occurring during pile installation. Method: Vibratory Hammer Dynamic Pile Driving: The composite piles consisted of built-up steel members with an overall open cross…

1100 Broadway Avenue in Oakland

Challenge: Case Pacific Company in California contacted GRL Engineers to help collect high-strain dynamic measurements on two Cast-In-Drilled-Hole piles. The project in Oakland at 1100 Broadway Avenue, was initiated to update an abandoned foundation. The unknown limitations of the foundation brought the need to perform a high-strain dynamic test. GRL…

Milwaukee 7Seventy7 Apartments

Challenge: 7Seventy7 Apartments in Milwaukee. Wisconsin, consists of a 33-story building with two levels of below-grade parking across the entire building footprint. Timely and cooperative teamwork among the owner/developer, geotechnical engineer, testing agency, structural engineer, construction manager, and pile-driving contractor resulted in an efficient, cost-effective, high-capacity driven-pile foundation on a…

Harbor River Bridge

Challenge: Proposed in 2014, the Harbor Bridge replacement project required quality assurance testing. Harbor Island, is accessed through this drawbridge, located on US-21 in South Carolina. This vacation destination sea island was originally hunting land that had little need for incoming and outgoing traffic, which was sufficient for the bridge’s…

New Jersey Floodwall

Hurricane Sandy hit the coastline of New Jersey at the end of October 2012, causing millions of dollars in damages, including 750 homes impacted by the storm in Port Monmouth township, New Jersey. Due to this event and the other hurricanes devastating the coastline in more recent years, the U.S.…

Cairo Bridge over the Fork Hughes River

A study performed in 2015 proved the 18’-5” wide bridge in Cairo, West Virginia to be insufficient for the average daily traffic that the city needed. Placed on a major road, the bridge connects route 31 over the North Fork Hughes River and is considered a pertinent structure. After rehabilitation…

SR-19 Over Little Lake Harris Bridge

The previous bridge over Little Lake Harris in Central Florida had been in use since 1950. The original bridge that connected Howey and Astatula was a long, wooden bridge that opened in 1927. After the second span was built, the wooden bridge was torn down, only leaving a small dock…

Russell Street Bridge

Challenge: Inland Foundation Specialties contacted GRL Engineers to help predict displacement on a drilled shaft in sand, gravel and cobble deposits. GRL conducted a bi-directional static load test using calculated geotechnical nominal resistances through foundation testing Method: A bi-directional static load test (BDSLT) was performed on June 6th, 2018. Fifty-four…

Norfolk Southern Railroad

The original bridge carrying the Norfolk Southern Railroad over the Grand River was built in 1905 and reinforced in the 1940’s. High maintenance costs and a restrictively large footprint in the Grand River led to the decision to replace the bridge. The Great Lakes Construction Company was awarded the contract…

Tappan Zee Bridge

Originally built in 1955, the Tappan Zee Bridge was maintaining a daily traffic rate of 40,000+ vehicles per day upon its completion, which greatly increased with years to come. In 2010, the bridge had a daily traffic rate of 135,000 vehicles per day, reducing the life-span of the original design.…

Corpus Christi Export Terminal

Corpus Christi Liquefaction, LLC, a subsidiary of Cheniere Energy, is developing and constructing a liquefied natural gas (LNG) export terminal at one of Cheniere's existing sites that was previously permitted for a regasification terminal. The liquefaction project is being designed for five trains with expected aggregate nominal production capacity of…

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Case

Studies

Featured

Dynamic Load Testing on Helical Piles

Featured

Multi-Year Testing on Highway I-69

Featured

Offshore Wind Farms in New Jersey

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