Project Highlights

ACEC/SC Engineering Excellence Palmetto Award

This project won the 2007 Palmetto Award (top award) in the Engineering Excellence Awards competition held by the American Council of Engineering Companies, South Carolina.

S&ME performed comprehensive geotechnical field exploration and evaluations for Vought Aircraft Industry’s new facility in South Carolina. Two main buildings totaling 580,000-square feet were constructed in 2005-2006 and a taxiway to connect the facility is scheduled for completion in early 2007. The new facility will produce the fuselage sections for Boeing Aircraft’s new 787 Dreamliner. S&ME has been involved throughout the design and construction process from site explorations, including geotechnical as well as Phase I and Phase II environmental assessments, through construction quality assurance testing. S&ME was part of a team that included BRPH of Melbourne, Florida, and HGB&D of Charleston.

For our design services we drilled 5 standard penetration (SPT) test borings, 35 cone penetration test (CPT) soundings, 3 seismic cone penetration (SCPT) and 2 dilatometer test (DMT) soundings in our exploration for the site. Laboratory testing and a Site Specific Seismic Response Analysis were also performed. The project was particularly challenging from a foundation design and site improvement standpoint because the entire site is located in an area of abandoned phosphate mines from the early 20^th century. Many of the machine foundations had practically zero settlement tolerances. To meet these challenges, a variety of foundation and site improvement methods were utilized. This included wick drains, surcharging, pile foundations, and conventional remove-and-replace techniques that allowed for some shallow foundations. Pile capacities were confirmed using Pile Driving Analyzer (PDA) testing.For our construction testing services we monitored controlled fill and concrete placement, inspected reinforcing steel in footings and slabs, performed floor flatness/levelness testing, inspected structural steel and coatings and tested asphalt and concrete for compliance with project specifications.