5051 Center Avenue

The Brayman Construction Foundations Division was subcontracted by Turner Construction for micropile foundations at the historic Ford Factory in the East Liberty neighborhood of Pittsburgh, PA. The final project (called The Assembly) received a 2022 Pittsburgh Master Builder’s Association (MBA) Award of Excellence in the Projects Over $25 Million category.

Brayman designed and installed 26-each, 12.5” diameter micropiles about 35 feet in depth each for the foundation of the crane shed shell. This structure allowed for the crane shed to be preserved for historical purposes and a steel and glass shell to be built around it for a multi-purpose space. The crane shed was where railcars carrying car parts for the Model A Ford were unloaded and lifted to specific floors where different portions of the assembly process occurred.

The micropiles on one side of the structure were within 12” of an existing active sewer main. We probe-drilled at several locations along this alignment to verify that the line wouldn’t interfere. The sewer was never affected by our operation. We maintained the micropile locations by drilling with a steel template made for each specific pile cap.

There was no load testing on this project as part of our scope.

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