Case Histories

CHANCE® Helical Pile Underpinning

New Zealand Earthquake Repair

The house at 12A Chardale St. in Christchurch, New Zealand, is in a residential neighborhood that was built on top of liquefiable soil. In the last five years, hundreds of earthquakes have hit the area and the soil has shifted, subsided, and been forced up, out of the ground. When work began, in July of 2014, the concrete slab under the house was tilted by more than three inches (85 millimeters). This is outside building code requirements, but is repairable.

Castle Hills

Project is new construction, residential. Single family structure. Underlying soil conditions required casing of the drilled concrete piers. This proved to be too costly in terms of dollars and time. CHANCE® helical piles proved to be the most efficient technology (vs. drilled, cased concrete piers).

Deep Foundation Iyopawa Island Home

The soil on the desired build site for the 4,000 square foot home was less than desirable with blow counts ranging from 4 to 11 at depths of 45 feet. Due to the build site being on an island, there was limited access for large construction equipment. Construction noise and vibration were considered as the island’s main feature is the Iyopawa Island Golf Course

Jefferson County Historical High School

Built in 1852, the Monticello High School (also known as the Jefferson Academy and Jefferson County High School) was the first brick public school built in Florida. The school was built under the direction of Samuel Carroll, a builder/plantation owner from Virginia using locally made bricks fired in a kiln at the George Taylor Plantation. The school was added to the National Registry of Historic Places in 1999, but has been vacant since 1991 due to needed repairs.

Helena Town Pump

The local Town Pump needed to expand its convenience store, which involved a basement addition and a need for a vertical cut through clay. The basement addition required the support of the existing frost wall during excavation and concrete pour.

Riverfront Repair

Warehouse on Mississippi riverfront downtown Minneapolis. Original building was expanded in the 1970’s, featuring a loading dock with ramp. The loading dock wall was out of plumb by 3” or more, due to adjacent bridge construction.

Rumfish Aquarium

St. Pete Beach, Florida, the Guy Harvey Outpost added a new attraction, the Rumfish Grill, by converting an existing commercial site into the restaurant. But, there was a major obstacle-transitioning a 40’x15′ atrium into a large aquarium. The site of the atrium was fully enclosed by four walls with buried water lines below. The massive 40’x12’x12′ tank needed a deep foundation system that could bear the weight of 33,500 gallons of water and be completely stable, or the tank would leak.

Four Story Hotel Foundation

A large brown-field site stood three blocks from the center of Hartsville, SC. Previously a railroad yard, the soil was contaminated with creosote and coal dust covered with 2.5 feet of clean fill. Hartville wanted to build something there to increase economic development in that area. The question was how?

Dormitory Construction

General contractor Hardison / Downey Construction was advised that large settlement concerns indicated the need for a deep foundation system. Highly variable site conditions made foundation construction unpredictable and time consuming. H/D Construction approached Arizona Helical Pier Co., a Certified CHANCE installer, and Steelhead Engineering to value engineer the foundation design.

Seismic Zone Foundation System

The proposed expansion of the BoDean Company Asphalt Plant, located on two acres in Santa Rosa, California is surrounded by residential neighborhoods. Three new 14’ diameter batch silos and conveyor equipment rise more than 85’ above the 40’ x 60’ foundation pad and can contain 900 tons of bituminous material batched at 300° F.

Transmission Tower Foundations

In 2014, Instituto Costarricense de Electricidad (ICE) was building a 230-kV transmission line when it faced a problem. While most of the line’s 75 km path passed through areas with decent soil and no governmental limitations on construction, the last section had to cross an environmentally protected area. Since ICE was not permitted to cut any trees, the only solution was to build two, tall towers (one on each side) 800 meters apart and run the line over the protected area.

Caracol Knits Power Plant

Concrete was not a feasible option due to high price, poor soil conditions and long installation time so the client began looking for a new foundation solution. Helical piles were presented to the client as a viable option to concrete.

Deep Foundation Water Tank Support

120,000 gallon water tank installation with a deep foundation system on alluvial soil for a middle school in Touchet (Too-she), Washington. Foundation system design and installation to hold a new water tank in poor soil conditions while the school is in session.

Texas Backyard Pool

The soil type in Allen, TX is predominantly clay. Clay tends to present an uplifting force due to cyclical moisture content of the soil that require foundations to withstand both compression and tension loads. This cycling of forces translates to cracks which lead to leaks for pools. The pool construction site located in the backyard of a residence did not allow for access of large construction equipment.

Fairfield High School Helical Pier Installation

New 3 story addition to Fairfield High School to include four new science classrooms, a new auto shop and wrestling room, common areas, stairwells, and an elevator for ADA accessibility. Built in 1939, the school enrolls more than 550 students.