CONTRACTOR SPOTLIGHT – Earth Tech, LLC
This month, DuroTerra’s Contractor Spotlight focuses on Earth Tech, LLC headquartered in Land O’ Lakes, Florida. Originally founded in 1991 by Ron & Lewis Broadrick, Earth Tech has recently been acquired by Menard Group. Earth Tech operates throughout the Southeast with engineering and contracting licenses in Florida, Georgia, South Carolina and North Carolina. Since the 90’s, Earth Tech was mainly involved in soil stabilization treatment and sinkhole preventative type work mostly in the Central Florida region where sinkholes and kart formations are common. Earth Tech owns and operates its own ready-mix plant in Pasco County to service its own projects in Central Florida. In 2010, Earth Tech expanded techniques by forming a Heavy Civil division and offering Design-Build Ground Improvement techniques such as Vibro Replacement (Stone Columns, Aggregate Piers), Vibro Compaction, Rigid Inclusions, High-capacity Helical Piles, Micro Piles and Ductile Iron Piles.
According to Executive Vice President, Bud R. Khouri, P.E., Earth Tech likes to use Ductile Iron Piles for low overhead work and sites with restricted and tight access. They use them as a value engineering alternative to conventional concrete and steel piles where vibration, pile driving and damage to existing structures are a concern to owners, developers, and engineers. “We love Ductile Piles for many reasons: Speed of installation, minimal waste, no limit to driving depth; Delivery and on site storage is not an issue compared to conventional piles; Smaller Installation Equipment compared to big cranes, diesel hammers and big drill rigs. It’s a perfect solution for highly irregular Florida limestone profile.”
Please see the Project Highlight below to see how Earth Tech recently handled a challenging project in Tampa, Florida. For more information about Earth Tech, visit www.earthtech.com.
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PROJECT HIGHLIGHT – Moffitt Cancer Center Pedestrian Bridge
A new bed tower addition to the Moffitt Cancer Center in Tampa, Florida required a pedestrian bridge to connect the tower to an existing clinic building. The new bridge had to cross a wide, busy arterial street, resulting in a foundation design requiring 13 new foundations.
Subsurface conditions encountered at the site consisted of a 10 to 15 ft thick stratum of loose to medium dense sand underlain by 20 to 30 ft of soft to very stiff plastic clay. Limestone bedrock was encountered below the clay at depths ranging from an average of 35 to 45 feet. Typical for Florida limestone conditions, the rock exhibit a high degree of variability in competency and weathering.
The project design team considered driven pipe piles, drilled micropiles, and Ductile Iron Piles (DIPs) for support of the new foundations. Early project budgeting revealed that the DIP solution would provide the best combination of performance, ease of construction, and low cost. Earth Tech, LLC was selected to install the Ductile Iron Pile system.
Engineers at Earth Tech designed an exterior grouted Series 118/7.5 Ductile Iron Pile using a 220 mm grout shoe to construct an 8.5-inch grouted displacement pile to resist 75 kips (compression), 30 kips (tension) and over 7 kips of lateral load. Following a successful load test program, a total of 183 Ductile Iron Piles were installed to depths ranging from 34 to over 100 ft due to the weathered limestone variability. The Ductile Iron Pile solution provided a low vibration piling option that easily addressed the variable conditions with the Plug and Drive connection. To learn more about the project, check out the full project summary
