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Helical Piles for a Boardwalk in Environmentally Sensitive Areas
Here is one mo
re example of a helical pile foundation solution in an environmentally sensitive area completed by our Techno Metal Post team. Our Techno Metal Post team in Colorado, United States completed this boardwalk project not only within an environmentally sensitive area, but during the winter months. They installed helical piles over
wet and saturated soil for a new public boardwalk. The new boardwalk would be situated in a wetland area and has an observation deck for the public to enjoy. The existing deck structure was too small and did not allow for many people to observe the area at one time. The new design incorporated a helical pile foundation, which provided a long-term solution to the freezing and thawing cycles around the structural support elements of the boardwalk and offers a much more stable and robust viewing area for the public.
The installation of the helical piles took place during the winter months, which reduced the impact to the surrounding environmentally sensitive area. Our Techno Metal Post in-hou
se engineering team specified a minimum of 3 Kips for this design, which was exceeded during installation and ended up at 12-15 Kips geotechnical capacity. One unique thing about this job is that it had expansive subsurface clay soil, which is a challenge for foundation work. We were confident, however, that once we went past this expansive layer, the structural integrity of the soil would be stable. This turned out to be the case and our piles were securely set in a layer beneath this clay obtaining our minimum depth specification. Using helical piles in this setting was a huge advantage over concrete caissons as concrete is more susceptible to heaving in expansive soil and freeze thaw cycles due to their larger diameter requirements and increased friction to surrounding soil.
If you would like to know more about this project, please visit the following link to review additional technical details.
https://www.technometalpost.com/en-CA/cases/belmar-park-boardwalk/
If you are interested in Techno Metal Post helical piles, please contact one of our dealers near you and they would be happy to review your project and get you a quotation. Here is a link to our “Find a Dealer” feature on our website.
by Nadia Tardif
Marketing Manager
January, 2024
