PROJECT OVERVIEW
Phoenix Project #2111
With this project, Phoenix was hired to install deep foundations in support of a new addition for “Off The Rails”, a restaurant and music venue situated next to the DCU Center in Worcester, MA. The DCU Center Arena is where the Worcester Railers ECHL Hockey team plays their home games, and Off The Rails is a great place to meet and enjoy great food before or after a game.
Originally conceived as a helical pile project requiring more than 100 piles to be installed, Phoenix offered that ductile iron piles (“DIPs”) could provide some cost and schedule savings to the project, as well as offering reductions to pile cap excavation sizes and concrete volumes. Prior to confirming the scope and price, Phoenix performed additional soil borings on site to verify proposed pile depths and validate its pricing.
Prior to the start of production installation, Phoenix performed a load test on a sacrificial pile to 200% of design load. The results of the test indicated that the originally-assumed DIP count of 38 needed to be increased by 7 piles up to a total of 45. Still, the DIP alternate would deliver cost and schedule savings as promised.
Each DIP was driven into the earth using an excavator-mounted impact hammer. These driven piles were advanced until they met the engineer’s criteria for completed advancement of less than one inch per minute for a total of 2 minutes, assuring that every pile would be able to adequately support future building loads. Typical depths at this site were approximately 55 feet below working grade. Each pile advanced through fill, organics, and outwash Sand, before terminating on the underlying bedrock.
Following their installation, the piles were filled with grout, cut to grade beam elevation and topped with reinforcing bars and plates. The DIPs were incorporated into new foundations, and the remaining construction (by others) was completed.
