Maine General Hospital, Alfond Center for Health, Augusta, ME

Description

SFC Engineering was called upon for Retaining Wall Design services by the Maine General Hospital on the Alfond Center for Health. They worked closely with Redi-Rock of Central Maine, and faced some unique challenges to this project.

Eleven different retaining and freestanding walls were required for this project, totaling 23,100 sq. ft. “There was 50-feet of grade difference across the site. This required significant cuts and fills,” explained Jeff Benway, P.E. and head of Retaining Wall Services at SFC. This project also faced a very tight construction schedule that needed to be completed over multiple phases.

A stream ran through the property, which also created challenges for Redi-Rock and SFC. “The steel arches for the bridge were on a pile foundation so settlement would be minimal, but the Redi-Rock walls on either side of the arches would be sitting on the natural soils. Settlement of these walls was anticipated to be up to two inches”, explained Benway.

“The tallest wall was up to 22.5 ft. high and extended for 500 ft. This wall had 10 courses of geogrid that extended 18 feet into the soil behind the wall,” Benway explained. “One of the difficulties of this wall was that it abutted the building at one end and then ran to a 90° corner.”

This project was featured on Forester Weekly’s, Erosion Control, and was awarded Freestanding Wall of the Year by Redi-Rock International. SFC’s Jeff Benway is proud to have been the project engineer, and looks forward to working with Redi-Rock on another successful project.