CASE STUDYCAPE CORAL DOLLAR GENERAL COMMERCIAL HELICAL INSTALLATION

It is April 20, 2021 and Cape Coral is flourishing, beautiful new homes being constructed everywhere. Cape Coral presently is ranked as the eighth largest city in the entire State of Florida. The city now has a population of more than 240,000 residents, and that number is escalating by the day. The first half of this year alone the City of Cape Coral has issued thousands of new permits for the construction of single-family homes.

With increasing population density comes a need for added infrastructure. A new Dollar General Store was slated to begin construction on a canal adjacent to the Cape Coral City Hall. The concrete structure was to be constructed within eight (8) foot of an existing 24-year-old concrete seawall.
In addition, the proposed foundation for the 8,000 square foot store would be three (3) foot beneath the top elevation of seawall.

This posed a significant situation for the general contractor and owners, as all the existing tie-backs and deadman would have to be removed to install the deep footing. Subsequent circumstances arose when engineers became alarmed the structure could collapse if the existing seawall ever failed.

The engineers determined that a deep foundation would be required for the new building to prevent possible undermining or complete failure. In addition, it was determined by local coastal engineers that a supplemental tie-back-anchor system would be required before progressing forward with project.

ANALYSIS

Coastal Foundation Solutions was contacted by Bubba Williamson of William and Sons, one of Cape Corals oldest seawall contractors, to establish remedial methods for the Dollar General Store. Initial meetings with engineers and staff, allowed the team to secure a progressive plan.

Coastal Foundation Solutions, with its vast knowledge of marine and new foundation piling systems, was selected as the best qualified contractor to perform the new tie-back-anchor systems and new deep foundation project.
The deep foundation system and tie-backs were engineered to be helical pilings and anchor tie-backs.

Our office was first engaged to drive test piling on the project to ascertain pile capacities and pipe depth. The initial test piling was installed to a depth of forty-five foot with insignificant torque capacities. It was subsequently determined that capacity we did secure initially, that Micro Pulldown Pilings would be the best piling option.

SOLUTION

Coastal Foundation Solutions progressed forward with installing thirty-eight (38) helical tie-back-anchors and removed the existing concrete deadman. The helical anchors were installed to engineer capacities required. Load test were performed on random helical anchors to verify torque and tension capacities.

The deep foundation helical piling was a Micro Pulldown Pile. We installed fifty-eight (58) piling with half of the piling in 15-degree batter. The project would entail a combination of Coastal Foundation Solutions unique equipment and Modular barges for the installation of piling.

RESULT

With extensive helical experience, our company was able to serve the foundation needs of our customer while completing the project two weeks ahead of schedule.