Geotechnical Aspects of the Port of Long Beach Pier E Redevelopment Project

The Pier E Redevelopment Project comprises Phase 1 of the Middle Harbor Redevelopment Project, a 10-year plan to improve efficiency and environmental performance at the Middle Harbor container shipping terminals in the Port of Long Beach, California. Phase 1, referred to as the Pier E Redevelopment Project, will involve construction of a replacement wharf at PierE, widening and deepening Slip 3, partial infilling of Slip 1, and upgrading the Pier D infrastructure. The local subsurface conditions, previous site development, space limitations, and area seismicity present significant challenges for the proposed development. This paper discusses some of the key geotechnical design aspects of the project in light of the outlined challenges. The aspects include the selection of slope redevelopment options at a site with varying subsurface conditions that balance risk exposure and cost, providing geotechnical input for pile and bulkhead design, and maximizing the use of various types of field investigation techniques to characterize subsurface conditions throughout the project area.