The WETA Central Bay Operations And Maintenance Facility project included the construction of a floating dock for harboring 12 ferries, a fixed gangway pier, a new seawall, a four-story administration building, and a fuel yard. ENGEO was hired in 2016 to performed design and quality control services for the design-build plans during the construction process.
ENGEO provided geotechnical recommendations for project improvements, which included piles for the pier and floats, and recommendations for an emerging ground improvement technique, Direct Power Compaction, to mitigate liquefaction of the hydraulically placed fill. The recommended foundation and soldier pile design resulted in significant cost reduction by shortening the piles and eliminating a row of tiebacks that would have been drilled through the remnants of the former seawall and rock dike fill.
ENGEO also designed the new seawall as a cantilevered soldier pile wall with shotcrete construction. Using this technique resulted in significant cost savings over the preliminary design by the owner’s previous design team. Furthermore, ENGEO used historic plans from site development and supplemental borings through the rock dike to validate our design to the owner’s representatives reviewing our work.
Simultaneously, ENGEO designed the riprap revetment along the shoreline at the end of the seawall while working with the project landscape architect to allow vegetation to grow in practical areas adjacent to the wall. Finally, during construction, ENGEO monitored ground improvement, vibrations, earthwork, and pile driving.
