Kansas Mixed-Use Apartment Complex Chooses Ground Improvement Alternative to Deep Foundations
Vaughn Rupnow, P.E., highlights an apartment project in Kansas where our team offered an alternative to costly deep augured cast-in-place piles during the field exploration phase.
Vaughn Rupnow, P.E., highlights an apartment project in Kansas where our team offered an alternative to costly deep augured cast-in-place piles during the field exploration phase.
The Delano Catalyst Apartment building in Wichita, Kansas, is a great example of how collaboration with Geopier® ground improvement can steer a project away from costly deep foundations.
The 204-unit apartment complex is a 5-story building with mixed-use space and a parking garage on the lower levels. It is central to a more than $50 million expansion of apartments, shops and hotels in the historic Delano District near downtown Wichita.
Parking structures typically have high load requirements. When these conditions are combined with deep poor soils, the need for unique foundation solutions arises. The Delano District is situated near the west bank of the Arkansas River, and the soils consist of undocumented urban fill overlying very deep alluvial deposits of soft silts or clays and very loose to medium dense sand.
Design Opinions and Clear Submittals
During the preliminary pricing phase in 2018, geotechnical engineers at PEC reached out to us about alternatives to costly deep augered cast-in-place piles. Conversations occurred while the project was still in the field exploration phase to determine the most reliable ground improvement option that could reduce foundation costs.
These discussions led to our recommendations for the Geopier Impact® Rammed Aggregate Pier (RAP) system. The Geopier Impact system is a displacement method that is extremely effective for loose sands and semi-cohesive soils, and it creates very stiff rammed aggregate elements up to 40 feet below grade. For the Delano Catalyst Apartments project, our installer constructed Impact elements up to 19 feet below the foundations.
Crossland Construction, the General Contractor for the project, began by excavating to the subgrade elevation. Peterson Contractors, Inc., the licensed Geopier installer, began Impact work in the fall of 2019.
The Geopier ground improvement was designed to provide differential settlement control and increased bearing pressure (6,000 psf) for conventional shallow footing support. Installing hundreds of elements in a few weeks, this solution saved the project hundreds of thousands of dollars in deep foundation costs, and it also fast-tracked the schedule.
Tenants who will eventually call these apartments home may not give a thought to the foundation support of the building. However, with the help of cutting-edge ground improvement technologies, the redevelopment of the historic Delano District will without a doubt be a remarkable success.
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