Infastructure
Challenge
A Southern California engineering contractor faced a high-stakes project replacing large water pipes beneath a heavy concrete structure in loose soil. Excavation risked collapse and settlement affecting nearby water pump buildings, and the project needed an urgent solution due to tight timelines.
Solution
Limited access and nearby structures made traditional equipment impractical. Geobear’s engineers designed a precise injection plan to densify the soil around the pipes, stabilizing the area and allowing safe excavation, with work beginning just three weeks after the initial call.
The depth our contractor had to replace pipes in silt soil
Just 3 weeks from the initial call, our work was completed
The savings from days of labor reduced once the work was complete
Our client is a general engineering contractor with 55 years in business serving Southern California. They have long served large commercial and industrial clients as well as several government agencies and municipalities. In this case, they were selected by a utility company managing the local public water supply and infrastructure to replace multiple large water pipes.
The water district hired our client to replace multiple large water pipes. This entailed excavating down to ten feet. The soil in this area was loose and the excavation area went under a heavy concrete block structure. Project engineers were concerned that excavating there would cause the area to fall in on itself much like digging a hole in beach sand. They were also concerned about causing settlement that would affect the building housing the water pumps. Both the contractor and city were under extremely short timelines to address the issue and waiting weeks for a solution was not an option.
Given the limited access to the area and the proximity of the nearby pipes and structures, other options were not practical. Any solution requiring multiple large trucks or heavy equipment would not be feasible due to the limited area with which to work without destroying existing structures.
Our technicians and Geobear global engineering experts collaborated with the project engineers to determine a specific treatment plan. The experts collaborated to define specific distances, depths, and volumes to treat the area and densify the soils around the pipe. Our technicians performed a series of injections along both sides of the pipe down to the depths of excavation. This created a matrix of soil and polymer on the sidewalls, allowing the excavation to be performed without the loose soil falling back into the trench. In just three weeks from the first phone call, Geobear was onsite and working on the project.
Our client had been in a tight spot with no practical solutions that could work given the space, timeline, and complexity of the project. Geobear’s proprietary geopolymer injection approach allowed the contractor to complete the replacement of water lines in the area without dealing with extensive soil issues that would have cost days of labor over the course of the project. Because of Geobear’s involvement, this project was able to move on as planned with less disruption and less project overruns.
Get in touch with our expert team today and discover how Geobear can extend the life of your critical infrastructure assets.
