In 2015, Overlake Medical Center launched an expansion project to build a five-story tower with 240,000 square feet of space to support the hospital's growing needs.
GeoEngineers delivered recommendations for a variety of excavation support strategies, including soil nail walls and tieback soldier pile walls.
The team planned for minor construction dewatering through the use of trenches and sump pumps and recommended a passive drainage system for permanent below-ground structures.
GeoEngineers recommended high-bearing-capacity shallow foundations to provide cost-effective support of the new tower.
Overlake Medical Center’s FutureCare Expansion
The latest expansion in a long legacy of geotechnical service for this important Bellevue, Washington hospital facility.
Since 1998, GeoEngineers has regularly been a key partner in Overlake Medical Center’s development goals. Healthcare demands on this community hospital in Bellevue, Washington, grew steadily over the past two decades, and GeoEngineers provided geotechnical and environmental recommendations for several phases of expansion during that time.
In 2015, Overlake Medical Center launched Project FutureCare, a $250 million new inpatient tower development. The five-story tower would provide 240,000 square feet of space for patient recovery rooms, a cutting-edge childbirth ward and two surgical units. The project also included a 3,400 square foot expansion of the operating room facility. Once again, GeoEngineers provided geotechnical services for the project.
The geotechnical team reviewed subsurface information from previous investigations, performed additional drilling to characterize groundwater on the site and made recommendations for earthwork, foundation, shoring and dewatering designs. The hospital structure also had to comply with strict seismic design requirements, so GeoEngineers’ seismic risk and resiliency experts performed site-specific seismic response analyses to determine appropriate design standards.
Approach
- The hospital structure had to comply with strict seismic design requirements outlined in ASCE/SEI 7-10 and the 2012 International Building Code. GeoEngineers’ seismic risk and resiliency experts performed site-specific seismic response analyses for three different earthquake levels and used the results to recommend appropriate design standards.
- GeoEngineers delivered recommendations for a variety of excavation support strategies, including soil nail walls and tieback soldier pile walls.
- GeoEngineers investigated groundwater conditions and found only a modest seepage rate. The team planned for minor construction dewatering through the use of trenches and sump pumps and recommended a passive drainage system for permanent below-ground structures.
- The site was located on undisturbed glacially consolidated soils and structural fill, so GeoEngineers recommended high-bearing-capacity shallow foundations to provide cost-effective support of the new tower.
Results
GeoEngineers’ geotechnical work on project FutureCare is only the latest chapter in a long and fruitful relationship. The team used careful geotechnical investigation and site-specific seismic response analyses to give the Overlake Medical Center’s new tower a secure foundation from which to continue serving the Bellevue community.
