Hersheypark is a famous amusement park in Hershey, Pennsylvania. The park looked to GeoPrac sponsor Nicholson Construction for micropile foundations for their new $12.5M Storm Runner roller coaster. The ground conditions consisted of highly variable karstic limestone. Read the project profile on Nicholson’s website to see how they handled the design and construction of these micropile foundations. [Source: Nicholson Construction Company. Image: Nicholson Construction]
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Mitigation of Karst and Sinkholes for New Hospital Structure
The site for the new Harrison County Hospital, approximately 25-miles west of Louisville, Kentucky had 15 sinkholes formed by limestone dissolution, a geomorphologic process referred to as Karst topography. There were a number of geotechnical engineering and geological engineering challenges associated with the characterization, excavation, backfilling, foundation engineering and other mitigation measures as described by Peggy Hagerty Duffy, P.E. in her article entitled “Karst and Complications” in the August 2008 issue of Civil Engineering Magazine (Duffy, 2008b).
Mitigation measures for the sinkholes included use of graded filters with geotextiles, careful inspection of rock socket foundations along with pilot holes and careful geotechnical inspection throughout the construction process. One particularly interesting aspect of the project is that several of the sinkholes were used as drainage facilities to receive surface water runoff. Read on for a summary of this interesting article. (Photo of sinkhole in Karst Topography being used as a drainage feature, from Duffy (2008b), Civil Engineering Magazine)
Mary Ellen Large Joins Nicholson Construction
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It’s among great pieces of micropiles but people just don’t knwo the kind of work it takes yet. Maybe one day they will.