The Pile Driving Contractors Association (PDCA) selected a GeoEngineers project, the Port of Alaska Modernization, as a PDCA Project of the Year. GeoEngineers’ Construction Design Team worked closely with prime contractor Pacific Pile & Marine to complete phase 1 of this ambitious project late last year.
The Port of Alaska Modernization set out to construct a new loading platform and approach trestle for the state’s busiest port on a short timetable and in an incredibly complex marine environment. With 40-foot tides and six-knot currents, the region has some of the most extreme and variable tidal forces anywhere in the United States. Seasonal weather was also an issue—in Alaska you can’t exactly build all year—so the team had to plan around a short construction window.
During phase 1 of this project our team primarily worked on a 50-foot-wide temporary trestle that would be needed to offload piles and precast material safely and efficiently. GeoEngineers’ construction design team designed a trestle that could withstand the dynamic shoreline environment and spearheaded designs for all the concrete formwork and falsework needed to build the structure. Work on the project is still incomplete, and phase 2 is now underway.
