GET was responsible for the geotechnical engineering and construction materials testing for the $21 million Stonebridge Elementary School for the Baldwin County Board of Education. The school is constructed on 31 acres in the Stonebridge master planned community off of Highway 31 in Spanish Fort, Alabama. The elementary school is CMU construction and consists of a main wing with five separate additional wings for a total educational structure of approximately 170,000 square feet. A free-standing gymnasium was constructed to support the school and is a pre-engineered steel frame structure with a 16,200 square foot footprint. The project also included the design and construction of a new entrance road into the school, associated automobile and bus parking areas and a retention pond.
Soils explorations included soil borings at varying depths across the project site and laboratory tests performed on selected soil samples recovered from the boring operations. Engineering included all planning, coordination and supervision of the soils explorations, evaluation of exploration results and engineering recommendations for the foundations, pavements and site preparation. Geotechnical evaluations included settlement analyses and estimates, and bearing capacity analyses and recommendations. The site for the classroom structure was sloping in terrain and required up to 5 feet of cut and 9 feet of fill to level the pad for foundation construction. Spread foundations were utilized to support both the school and gymnasium structures once site preparation recommendations outlined by GET had been completed.
The overall project’s 31 acres had a natural rolling terrain varying in elevation up to 30 feet. GET performed multiple slope stability analyses of the insitu soils as well as on potential fill soils brought in for the project. GET was able to provide the project civil engineer recommendations on varying alternate slope recommendations at locations around the project site so that no retaining walls were required, resulting in substantial savings to the project.
Construction materials testing services included field and laboratory testing of soils, concrete and masonry materials, pavement installation monitoring and testing and all associated documentation and distribution of field and laboratory test reports. Project services also included Special Inspections and Non-Destructive Testing and reporting.
Spanish Fort, Alabama