Procurement News Notice |
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| PNN | 314 |
| Work Detail | Since it was awarded a $9.67 million contract to construct the International Bluegrass Music Center in June, Peyronnin Construction of Evansville has made visible progress at the downtown Second Street site, excavating the building's footprint and moving dirt from the property, despite periods of persistent rain. "They are digging down to put in the foundation," said Ed Ray, the city's assistant city manager and city attorney. "The rain has not helped." Ray said the center will be built on a type of slab foundation, which will not require putting in scores of deep foundation piers, as is common when building along the Owensboro riverfront. The bluegrass center lot, where the former state building sat, is unique because deep foundation elements under the state building were left amid soil previously contaminated by chemicals from a nearby dry cleaner. "We saved a great deal of money by not extracting the existing foundation of the former building," Ray said. "This is really using the best method for the existing site condition." Ted Lolley, the city's engineering liaison overseeing the project, said building the foundation for the bluegrass center is a several-step process. "What we are doing right now is the site is being stabilized and built up with crushed stone to provide a structural mat," Lolley said. Before the stone was put down, the dirt surface was compacted by repeatedly rolling fully loaded dump trucks over it, Lolley said. If a soft spot was found, it was dug out and stabilized. The stone is put down in a succession of layers, with each layer rolled and compacted. Then about 40, 18-inch thick concrete "footing building columns," each 10 feet by 10 feet, will be placed on top of the compacted stone. Those heavy squares of concrete will be the supports for the building itself, Lolley said. "We had a geophysicist look at the site and this method has been tested and is adequate for this site," Lolley said. The same type of foundation was used for the old state building and those deep concrete footers are still there, but below the new set of footers, Lolley said. "It would have costs hundreds of thousands of dollars to dig them all out," he said. "We didn't want to dig down and disturb that soil." Lolley said 80-foot-deep "auger-cast piles" are typically used for new buildings along the Owensboro riverfront, such as the Owensboro Convention Center and the downtown parking garage. It is the plan for a new four-story building going it at 101 Frederica St. on the former El Toribio site, he said. Those are installed by drilling a giant, hollow shaft auger deep into the soil and pumping concrete into the hole through the shaft simultaneously as the auger is removed, creating a foundation pier to support a building. The all-in cost estimate for the International Bluegrass Music Center is $15.3 million. Expected completion is the spring of 2018. |
| Country | United States , Northern America |
| Industry | Construction |
| Entry Date | 02 Sep 2016 |
| Source | http://www.messenger-inquirer.com/news/local/foundation-work-underway-at-bluegrass-center/article_8f24369f-00a6-522b-b89b-3d6f21d7aad3.html |
