LAFARGE CEMENT IMPORT TERMINAL
Brooklyn, New York

Project Description:

Development of the Lafarge Cement Import Terminal Facility consisted of the construction of four, 17,000 metric ton capacity concrete silos and a truck load out facility. The concrete silos were supported on a structural steel frame system on a thick concrete mat foundation supported on TaperTube Piles.

The project site is located on a bulkhead in the New York Bay in Brooklyn, New York. The subsurface conditions in combination with high lateral wind loads, seismic loads, and axial loads made the design of the piles a challenging geotechnical engineering task. In addition, an existing wood lagging bulkhead bordered the site to the north. The wood lagging system was scheduled to remain.

The subsurface conditions at the site consisted of historical fill underlain by alluvial organic soil deposits associated with the nearby New York Bay. Underlying the organic alluvial deposits, alternating layers of alluvial sand and clay deposits extended to an approximate depth of 100 feet below the surface.

The initial foundation system was proposed to consist of eight pile caps supporting each of the concrete silos. As such, Whitestone recommended the use of H-piles to support the structures. As the project design progressed, the use of a pile-supported mat foundation system was found to be more economical. High capacity TaperTube piles then were recommended and ultimately used at the site.

Some 128 TaperTube piles were successfully driven at the site. Vibrations induced during driving were found to be of low intensity, and did not cause damage to the existing bulkhead. The use of the TaperTube piles ensured ease and speed of construction schedule and reduced the required number of piles.

Whitestone's services included the following value engineering and geotechnical consulting services:

• recommendations for deep foundation systems consisting of TaperTube piles including recommendations for pile axial capacity, lateral capacity under wind and seismic loads and uplift capacity;

• modeling the entire concrete mat/pile system as one unit to ensure adequacy of design; and

• construction phase testing and inspection services including oversight of axial and lateral pile load test per New York City Building Codes, pile drilling operations, steel reinforcement and concrete pour inspections for foundation elements, pavement construction and structural steel connections.

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