Wednesday, February 22, 2017

Project Summary

Papa John's Cardinal Stadium
North End Expansion and Renovation
University of Louisvlle
Louisville, Kentucky                                                                                                       BACK

 
Geotechnical Drilling














A new elevated stadium expansion was designed and is under construction along the north end of the University of Louisville Papa John’s Cardinal Stadium. The expansion is a cast-in-place, reinforced concrete column & beam frame structure supporting steel beams with concrete on steel composite floor decks. Seating will be precast risers supported by rakers. Steel frame with vertical bracing scoreboard towers will be constructed at the east & west ends. The site formerly was a rail yard with associated environmental impacts. Uncontrolled fill & numerous buried obstructions were encountered during construction of the existing Stadium and nearby buildings. GEM explored the subsurface conditions & developed foundation design & other geotechnical recommendations. GEM worked with Michael Kalinski, PhD for seismic analyses, & Chase Environmental Group for environmental health & safety procedures during drilling operations. The exploration confirmed past information that the site was underlain by a large, subsurface valley (likely an old river or stream channel in the bedrock) with bedrock partially to completely removed to variably expose black (New Albany) shale and the underlying gray limestone and/or dolomite formations. The limestone formation had a high karst potential. The old valley was filled with highly variable alluvial clays, silts and sands with groundwater approximately 14 feet below existing grades. Drilled displacement piles, end-bearing on bedrock, were recommended to support column loads as great as 3,200 kips while limiting the amount of spoil that would require special handling and disposal methods, and providing increased crowd force to enhance end bearing conditions. Due to the complex bedrock conditions, a combination of static and statnamic load testing was developed to confirm pile capacities and to check for karst features that could impact pile performance. Spectral Analysis of Surface Waves (SASW) testing by Dr. Kalinski demonstrated that the site could be classified as Site Class C for seismic design, resulting in significant cost savings for the project. Dr. Kalinski also conducted a Seismic Site Response Analysis, which yielded less conservative design spectral acceleration values as compared to default values. During construction, GEM provided construction testing and monitoring services for earthwork, and engineering services for static and dynamic load testing of displacement piles.
Rendering of Completed Stadium Expansion
GEM Engineering, Inc.
1762 Watterson Trail
Louisville, KY USA 40299
(502) 493-7100 phone
(502) 493-8190 fax
www.gemeng.com

GEM provides Geotechnical Environmental and Materials Services

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