Summit Geoengineering Services provided geotechnical and environmental consulting for a retail building on Marginal Way in Portland, Maine.
The building structure, 17,000 square feet in footprint, included both demolition and renovation to portions of an existing building structure along with new expansion. Geotechnical challenges included marine deposits (soft clay). Environmental challenges included the presence of coal ash and miscellaneous fill explored as part of Phase II ESA. The subsurface investigation was performed jointly for both the geotechnical and environmental investigation saving overall time and cost to the project. A combination of test borings and seismic cone penetration tests (SCPTu) were performed by SGS using an AMS PowerProbe 9500 VTR to investigate the subsurface conditions. Test pits were excavated by SGS to investigate the condition of the existing foundation footings which were reused as part of the building renovation. Subgrade inspections were conducted by SGS to inspect suitability or environmentally impacted miscellaneous fill reused during construction.