Deep Foundation for Difficult Site Conditions

The Port of Long Beach (POLB) proposed to construct a facility to combine security operations in a single location. The project site was located adjacent to an existing perimeter stepped rock dike and included two buried rock dikes. The perimeter and buried rock dikes were underlain and surrounded by soft and loose, potentially liquefiable soils. The high seismic setting of the POLB, the stepped perimeter rock dike, and the presence of potentially liquefiable soils would lead to more than a meter of lateral displacement during the design earthquakes. To provide an earthquake resistant design, a unique configuration of driven piles was selected. To provide resistance to lateral loads, the piles were arranged in five rows, each with eight piles. This unique arrangement will allow the potentially liquefiable soils to flow between the widely spaced pile rows without significant permanent lateral displacement of the facility.