WuXi AppTec, Philadelphia Navy Yard, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
Overview: This 126,300 SF, 2-story industrial building at the east side of Philadelphia Navy Yard houses Wuxi AppTec’s United States Headquarters and its early phase clinical manufacturing and testing facility. GeoStructures was retained by Liberty Property Trust to perform the geotechnical investigation to characterize the subsurface conditions for foundation design and construction.
Highlights & Related Services:
GeoStructures performed a geotechnical investigation with detailed site characterization. Results showed a 25-ft thick, soft, high-plasticity silt layer across the site attributed to its close proximity to the Delaware River. This layer is sandwiched between two alluvial sand layers. Laboratory CRS consolidation testing of high-quality Shelby tubes confirmed the high compressibility of this layer. When loaded by the proposed building foundations and slab, this deposit would have caused a 16-inch settlement over a 4-year period. In order to construct shallow foundations, the silt layer needed improvement. Otherwise, a more expensive pile foundation with a structural slab system would have been required to support the building.
The ground improvement consisted of surcharging and strip (wick) drains. The design was optimized considering (1) the cost of the additional fill needed to construct a higher surcharge embankment and (2) the cost of installing wick drains to achieve the desired waiting period. The optimum design consisted of constructing a 10-ft high embankment with 6-ft spaced wick drains. The system was left to settle over a 6-month waiting period. The surcharge height was later increased to 20 ft in order to affect the removal of settlement for a mechanical room that was conceived at a later stage. Once the preloading was confirmed to have achieved its intended objectives, the surcharge was cut back to the proposed subgrade and building construction began.
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GeoStructures is now approved as a PennDOT Prequalified Geotechnical Drilling Contractor. ...
2021 Project of the Year
GeoStructures is the proud recipient of the Delaware Valley Geo-Institute 2021 Project of the...
2019 Project of the Year
GeoStructures is the proud recipient of the American Society of Civil Engineers 2019 Project of...
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