MARINE PORT TERMINAL
An Engineering Excellence Award-Winning Project

S&ME performed a comprehensive geotechnical investigation for construction of the Georgia Kaolin Terminals' new export facility. The new facility consisted of a waterfront dock, multiple 160-foot storage silos, rail-receiving pits, a 130,000-square-foot warehouse, and railroad modification.

The subsurface conditions on site are poor and highly variable, and combined with heavy loads presented a challenge to a safe and economical foundation design and slope stability. S&ME recommended prestressed concrete piles with a design capacity of 200 tons, the highest pile capacity ever used in this area. We also developed comprehensive installation and quality control procedures. By adopting the pile design and construction recommendations, the client saved over $1 million on pile foundation costs, and over three months of construction time.

S&ME recommended a non-uniform slope configuration along the river, allowing the use of earth slope instead of sheet pile retaining walls. The slope was constructed in accordance with our design.

Services:
• Soil test borings on land and in water
• Dilatometer testing on land
• Lab soil tests and slope stability analyses
• Instrumented pile static and dynamic testing
• Pile testing and driveability analyses
• Construction recommendations for piles and dredge slope
• Construction management assistance