PROJECT OVERVIEW
Phoenix Project #2008
This project consisted of 13 drilled shafts installed in an active parking lot supporting the city of Boston’s Police Headquarters. These shafts were needed to support new overhead parking canopies, which incorporated solar panels to generate supplemental power for the police station.
One memorable aspect of the jobsite was it extraordinarily tight access. Active security gates complicated the delivery of the large track-mounted drill rig, reinforcing cages, and concrete trucks, with only inches of room to spare in many cases. Mobile volumetric site-batched concrete trucks were used not only to help with site access, but also to mitigate supply issues that occur when pouring small volumes of concrete during the busy summer construction season.
The drilled shafts were all installed utilizing European-style temporary casing to stabilize the boreholes prior to materials placement. This approach enabled our crew to navigate a sloping parking lot much easier than conventional smooth-walled pipe would have allowed. The shafts had an exposed concrete finish ranging from 6” to more than 36” above existing grade. Additionally, anchor bolt templates had to be surveyed before and after placement to ensure the correct installation depth and orientation within the reinforcing cages had been achieved.
This project had a very aggressive schedule, which was successfully met in spite of its many challenges.
