Kennesaw Marketplace, an ambitious urban retail and mixed-use development located in Cobb County, Georgia, presented formidable geotechnical challenges, including soft soils reaching depths of up to 40 feet, wetlands, and an adjacent quarry. The realization of this project demanded innovative thinking and resourceful strategies to overcome the perceived risks and complexities. Earth Retention took on the challenge with determination, successfully providing cutting-edge Earth Retention Systems that enabled the development of this thriving marketplace.

Kennesaw Marketplace, an ambitious urban retail and mixed-use development located in Cobb County, Georgia, presented formidable geotechnical challenges, including soft soils reaching depths of up to 40 feet, wetlands, and an adjacent quarry. The realization of this project demanded innovative thinking and resourceful strategies to overcome the perceived risks and complexities. Earth Retention took on the challenge with determination, successfully providing cutting-edge Earth Retention Systems that enabled the development of this thriving marketplace.

This project entailed the design of approximately 843,000 square feet of post-and-panel sound barrier and combination sound barrier and retaining walls. There are 18 separate walls located along the east and westbound lanes of I-64, on both the east and west sides of the newly constructed High Rise Bridge located in Chesapeake, VA. The walls consist of precast concrete panels and steel posts fully-embedded into concrete drilled shaft foundations, with maximum wall heights of 32 feet and drilled shaft embedment lengths up to 31 feet.

A large portion of large-scale construction projects require building temporary structures to be used during the course of the overall project. The Florida Department of Transportation required temporary wall structures for the reconstruction and expansion of 21 miles of  I-4 in and around Orlando, Florida.

The CSX Intermodal Facility, located in downtown Worcester, MA where space is limited for expansion. Initially, the plan was to use shotcrete and soil nails for most of the project and only a small portion of the walls would utilize geogrid reinforced segmental retaining wall block. Problems with the site soils and the aesthetics of the proposed wall did not allow the initial design to proceed. To solve the aesthetics challenge, the plan was changed from having 15,000-20,000 ft² (1,400-1,800 m²) of geogrid reinforced retaining wall to using Allan Block to face the entire wall including the geogrid and non-geogrid reinforced areas.

This homesite sits on a bluff overlooking the St. Johns River in northeast Florida. The distance from the back of the house to the water’s edge is 120 ft. with a change in elevation of 75 ft. The soils are a silty sand with a phi angle of 32°. Steep slope angles on this site required numerous retaining walls, complicated drainage control during and after construction, and serious concerns with the deep foundation soils settling due to global instability of the whole area. Adjacent homes in the neighborhood had ill-fitting windows and doors due to the settlement.

When the University of Michigan helipad was relocated to the northeast corner of the medical campus, there were several key design requirements: Safety, Aesthetics, Structural Design Life and Cost. A creative solution was required to deliver these requirements and make the helipad as unobtrusive as possible on the site.