Elmhurst Innovation Center

Brayman Construction Corporation (Brayman) was subcontracted to provide specialty geotechnical construction services in support of the Elmhurst Innovation Center project in Pittsburgh, PA. The site's downtown location includes a historical association with the steel industry along the Monongahela River. Construction challenges for the foundation included widespread buried concrete remnants, buried steel obstructions, and buried steel slag fill.

As a design-build, Brayman installed 216-each, 5½-inch diameter micropiles. The design included four micropile types and nine cap configurations to meet loads of up to 440 kips. On a location-by-location basis, the network of grade beam details for the planned building dictated the subgrade completion elevation for the micropiles.

The proof-of-design demonstration included two compression-load and one tension-load load test on two sacrificial micropiles installed as part of the project.

Despite the drilling challenges presented by the site, Brayman completed the principal portion of the installation ahead of schedule. As a second mobilization and after a brief period to coordinate below-grade access, Brayman finalized the top of each micropile to schedule.

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