Two of Northeast Geotechnical’s principal engineers served as principal engineer and project manager/project engineer for the Swampscott High School project. The proposed development included the construction of a new three story school building with associated paved parking facilities and athletic fields. Subsurface conditions consisted of existing fill materials underlain in succession by natural, silty glacial till soils and relatively shallow competent bedrock.
Design phase responsibilities included coordinating and overseeing a subsurface exploration (test borings and test pits), engineering design, and report preparation. Engineering recommendations included foundation type and allowable soil and bedrock bearing capacities; floor slab support; minimum soil cushions below foundations and floor slabs to control differential settlement; seismic design criteria; slope design; reuse of cut glacial till soils as structural fill; and reuse and processing of blasted bedrock. Recommendations pertaining to bedrock blasting were provided including recommendations to create pre-split bedrock faces along the proposed athletic field.
Construction phase services including observing earthwork operations, performing field density testing on compacted fill materials to assess compaction, vibration monitoring, and assessing stability of cut rock faces were provided. Construction phase responsibilities also included addressing engineering questions from the design and construction teams arising from the complex geotechnical conditions encountered at the site.
