MORRIS-SHEA INSTALLED HIGH SCHOOL DEEP FOUNDATION

Morris-Shea installed DeWaal piles as deep foundations for the new Gulf Shores High School in Baldwin County near Gulf Shores, Alabama. These drilled displacement piles will support two and three story classroom, performing arts and athletic buildings.

Morris-Shea deployed two advanced drill rigs to install one-thousand-eight-hundred-sixty-two fourteen inch diameter DeWaal piles to depths ranging from thirty to fifty feet. Augercast piles were initially specified, but the DeWaal Pile System was determined to be preferable for the project, improving speed of installation and eliminating spoil handling and haul off. The DeWaal pile is a drilled, full displacement, cast-in-place concrete pile installed by powerful, fixed mast drill rigs capable of applying high rotational torque and crowd forces to the unique DeWaal tool.

Morris-Shea blanketed the job site with Cone Penetration Testing to identify elevation variabilities of the dense sand layer where the DeWaal piles terminate. Coastal deposited soils can vary over short distances. This subsurface has the potential of shrinking and swelling with a corresponding loss or gain in soil moisture. A relatively dense layer of varying sand conditions was disclosed at twenty-five feet to thirty-five feet below grade throughout the majority of the site.

Morris-Shea conducted 30 CPT soundings and performed pile load testing on various fourteen inch diameter DeWaal piles, supplementing existing geotechnical information with varying soil conditions at the site. Static load testing included compression, tension and lateral load tests. Four compression test piles penetrated into the sand bearing layer at two feet, three and one half feet, seven feet, and ten feet respectively. One tension test was installed with a 2 foot socket into the sand bearing layer.