Blu Harbor Redevelopment Receives 2018 ASCE Geotechnical Project of the Year Award

On September 6, 2018, ENGEO received the ASCE 2018 Geotechnical Project of the Year Award for the geotechnical engineering of the Blu Harbor Redevelopment Project in Redwood City, California. ENGEO Project Manager Janet Kan received the award on behalf of ENGEO at the ASCE San Francisco Section Annual Business Meeting & Awards Ceremony. The event was held at the Historic Green Room at the San Francisco War Memorial and Performing Arts Center. The San Francisco Section Awards program recognizes Outstanding Projects in Civil Engineering and Outstanding Individual Achievement. The project also received the 2018 CalGeo Outstanding Project of the Year Award in April 2018.

About Blu Harbor

Urban development in Northern California is fueling innovations in geotechnical engineering as more complex sites are developed. Intense job growth around the Bay Area puts increased demand on high-density housing in urban developed areas. The Blu Harbor residential development is located in Redwood City, a seismically active region in California. Once a former marshland with a major slough until the late 1950s, the site was reclaimed by placing imported fill over the native compressible clay deposits, locally known as Bay Mud. The project site was formerly used as a private marina with approximately 50 boat slips. The 12½-acre site is surrounded by water on three sides, with an inner marina at the center of the site.

ENGEO utilized a deep soil mixing technology brought from Japan to the US and designed a waterfront stabilization system for a high-density waterfront development project. Waterfront stabilization was deemed necessary to protect proposed structures and improvements from seismically induced lateral deformation.

The waterfront edge containment system of DSM columns provided the following benefits to this project:

• The project site was planned to be raised by 5 feet to combat potential sea-level rise in the next 50 years. DSM spoils generated were used as engineered fill to raise site grades, which lowered total construction costs by reducing the amount of expensive import soil.
• The DSM edge containment system consisted of interlocking DSM columns and panels that acted as a below-grade gravity wall to resist potential seismic lateral forces. This allowed shallow foundations with higher bearing capacity to be used near the waterfront, reducing foundation construction costs.
• The DSM edge containment system reduced the potential lateral deformations to tolerable amounts for the structures and improvements planned within the project site.

Congratulations to the team:

OWNER: Paul’s Corporation
GEOTECHNICAL ENGINEER OF RECORD: ENGEO Incorporated
CIVIL ENGINEER: Sandis
STRUCTURAL ENGINEER: Rinne & Peterson
ARCHITECT: Callander Associates,
CONTRACTORS: JAFEC USA, Farrell Design Build

www.asce-sf.org/awards