S&ME Inc. News

Myrtle Beach, Engineering Excellence Award, Palmetto Finalist

Multiple technologies save county over $1 million

In South Carolina, Myrtle Beach won not only an Engineering Excellence Award, but was also chosen a finalist for that state’s top (Palmetto) award.  Below is the wording appearing with pictures on a panel board that was part of the entry.

S&ME combined multi-geotechnical technologies, new and classic, to create an innovative, cost-effective foundation plan for a site with multiple soil and seismic challenges. This approach achieved savings of over $1 million for Horry County’s J. Reuben Long Detention Center expansion, a project comprising five buildings, ranging from one to four stories. Because of seismic-induced settlements and static-settlement concerns, we recommended several foundation-system types.

Our plan met the client’s requirement to keep the facility functional during construction and for strict settling tolerances for continual operation should an earthquake strike.  The client’s structural engineer projected significant cost savings if construction was designed according to the improved seismic-design parameters.  S&ME interpreted and refined seismic calculations to upgrade a large portion of the site from Site Class D to Site Class C to accomplish this.

We avoided extensive use of costly deep foundations in favor of shallow foundations and shallow foundations with surcharging that, together, accommodated all but the minimum security building. We placed it on piles because of thick deposits of loose subsurface sands, and liquefaction-induced settlement concerns. Technologies included standard and cone penetration test soundings, Marchetti dilatometer testing, multi-channel analysis of surface waves, and site-specific seismic response analysis.

This project provides valuable information for engineers facing similar extreme soil and seismic design concerns along coastal South Carolina. S&ME demonstrated that use of improved seismic design parameters were appropriate for the job.  We monitored all foundation installation so adjustments could be made if needed. Our approach provided Horry County with a sound cost/schedule solution. –For more information, contact Christopher Douton, Materials Staff Professional, Myrtle Beach