The project consisted of the development of a one to three story high steel framed warehouse and office building to be used for the storage of dry, cooler and freezer goods and also to serve as the Albany area headquarters for SYSCO. The structure has a total plan area of about 250,000 square feet, with future additions planned at about 170,000 square feet. The warehouse column loads ranged between about 70 and 350 kips, with maximum floor slab live loads of approximately 450 pounds per square foot. The warehouse is utilized for product storage with a high rack storage system. The racks are about 30 feet high, with rack struts spaced at about 36 by 111 inches. Each rack strut transmits a total load of about 14 kips to the floor slab, which supports the racks. In addition, the floor slabs are subject to heavy fork and lift truck traffic.
Development of this site was complicated by the history of extensive mining and reclaiming of lands across the nearly 60-acre parcel of land. The conditions across the site were highly variable, with vertical, mined excavation faces remaining along portions of the site and deep, uncontrolled fills across other portions of the site. The fills were placed at different locations and to different depths to raise grades for haul roads, divert and control site drainage, dispose of stumps and trees, and reclaim land. Further, much of the fills were composed of silt and clay soils with high percentages of organics, which rendered them unsuitable for reuse on the site as structural fill. Given the nearly 70 foot grade differences and the availability of granular fills, the site was designed as a nearly balanced cut and fill to level the grades for development. However, more than 100,000 cubic yards of unsuitable fills and materials had to first be undercut in the building area before the controlled filling could begin. Engineered fill heights of up to about 30 feet were constructed in the planned building areas.
In addition to the complicated history of the site resulting from human activity, the underlying geologic history was equally complex. The site appears to have been dissected by a stream in the ancient past, which resulted in two distinct soil profiles beneath the uncontrolled surficial fills. Generally, granular lake sands, with occasional lake sand and gravel layers or veins, predominated to the east of this stream while cohesive lake silts and clays formed much of the overburden to the west. The presence of the silt and clay stratum and the 20 to 30 foot fills planned above them in some areas, required the placement of surcharge fills across portions of the site to preconsolidate these cohesive soils.
Dente Engineering completed an extensive subsurface investigation, provided recommendations for foundation design and development of the site and provided construction phase observation and testing services for the Owner. These services included: providing criteria and direction on the undercutting of unsuitable fills from the building area, placement and compaction criteria for the engineered structural fills, and direction on the placement and removal of surcharge fills. In addition, Dente Engineering designed several 20 to 25 foot high reinforced soil slopes at the perimeter of the site to avoid wetland interference. Construction observation and testing services included all soil and concrete testing for the project. |
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