CASE HISTORY

Keller Brothers Team Up with Breslin Contracting for Middle School Addition

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The Project:
- The Montgomery County School District in Maryland has recently been working to improve and add to its school system through its Capital Improvements Program. They found that several of their schools are forecast to exceed their current seat capacities within the next four years. To prevent this, the school district created plans to build additions to existing schools to ensure their ability to provide the desired learning atmosphere.

The Keller Brothers were awarded an expansive project to upgrade a middle school within the Montgomery County School District. The project includes building three new structures within the school’s existing grounds. They looked to Breslin Contracting to help address their deep foundation needs for one of the three additions. Breslin needed to design a solution to support a new, 95-foot-long grade beam for a secondary building.

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The Situation:
- Mike Parodi, Breslin’s Operations Manager, and Co-Owner, submitted the initial plans to EAS for value engineering through their Sign & Seal Rebate Program. EAS designed a helical pile solution utilizing CHANCE’s 2.875” Round Shaft Helical Piles that would address all of the requirements specified. The recommendation called for (28) RS2875.276 piles using 7-foot leads with 8”, 10”, and 12” helices to be installed to a depth of ± 14-feet. This material would fulfill the requirement of 35-kips as the material has an ultimate 70-kips.

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The Solution:
- ​Met with delays due to Covid and unforeseen obstacles, construction began in July 2022. The Breslin crew was were met with poor soil conditions creating difficulty achieving torque at the anticipated depth. To address this, they added an additional extension to each pile. The additional extension helped get the pile to a deeper, more dense layer. With the denser soils, a higher torque (pile capacity) is achieved. This extension enabled them to achieve the desired torque and averted delays.

Construction is ongoing. It will take awhile for all the new additions to be completed. Once finished, the structures will create 12 new classrooms and solve the problem of overcrowding for the foreseeable future.

by Chelsea Kiesling

CHANCE Materials Used:

• (28) Piles to a depth of 14’ +/-:
  • RS2875.276 – 8”, 10”, 12” x 7’ Leads
  • RS2875.276 – 7’ Extensions
  • RS2875.276 – New Construction Brackets​​​

Machinery Used:

• CAT 305E2
  
• Digga 16k Drive Head
  
• CTS Torque Hub

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Never Settle