Hayward Baker - North America’s leader in specialty geotechnical construction - by David Mazzei and David Finocchio

David Mazzei, Hayward Baker, Inc.

David Finocchio, Hayward Baker, Inc.

Hayward Baker, Inc., a Keller Company, helps owners and developers overcome challenging foundation design and construction issues on a daily basis. Hayward Baker is annually ranked the No. 1 excavation/foundation contractor by Engineering News-Record (ENR) and provides design-build solutions for ground improvement, earth retention, grouting, and structural support. Hayward Baker has extensive experience throughout New England and North America.  Hayward Baker combines local construction experience with physical resources and technical expertise from New England and can draw on these same resources from around the globe. Hayward Baker has vast experience of identifying and constructing economical solutions while satisfying the technical requirements of each project, typical or unique.

Aggregate pier installation

As with all below-ground projects, the geology and subsurface conditions ultimately impact project price and schedule. A variety of geotechnical construction techniques exists to mitigate these subsurface challenges; however, site constraints and soil conditions often dictate which techniques are most appropriate for the construction project.

Many retail structures are low to mid-rise buildings often located on sites that contain undocumented fill or thick layers of organic/compressible soils. Typically, these poor subsurface conditions require a very expensive deep foundation system. As an alternate to an expensive deep foundation, ground improvements could be the perfect fit for retail building sites where economics of the building construction are key to the development pro forma. Ground improvements allow for footing and slab-on-grade construction, avoiding the requirement to construct structural slabs and pile caps.  There are many types of ground improvements that Hayward Baker can offer, but the two most common technologies used in New England are compacted stone columns, known as aggregate piers, or cylindrical high modulus/controlled stiffness grouted elements, known as rigid inclusions.

Aggregate pier Vibroflot

Aggregate piers can be quickly installed through thick layers of fill and soft soils. During installation, aggregate piers effectively densify loose granular soil between pier locations. Aggregate piers are installed with a binary system, involving a pre-drill rig and the vibroflot.  Rigid inclusions are columns of grout, drilled through fill and thick layers of soft, organic or clay soils. Rigid inclusions are ideal for situations where aggregate piers may not be suitable (e.g., thick organics/peat deposit).

Once the ground improvement construction is complete, traditional shallow foundations are constructed with conventional excavation equipment.

Hayward Baker provides a turn-key ground improvement foundation solution including engineering, design, shop drawing preparation and construction submittals. Hayward Baker also provides industry-leading quality control for your ground improvement project. While on-site constructing ground improvements, our full-time field engineer performs quality control tasks, such as ground improvement layout, material quantity verification and collecting grout samples for subsequent strength testing. Hayward Baker has designed and installed state-of-the-art data acquisition systems to collect information such as installation depth, grout quantity, pressure and other technical data. These systems allow “real-time” assessment of the ground improvement construction by the field engineer and project manager. 

Rigid inclusion installation.

In certain soil conditions, ground improvements offer an economical alternative to deep foundations, such as driven piles (pipe, H-pile, or concrete), micropiles, and drilled shafts; all of which require a structural slab and pile caps.  Please contact Hayward Baker to discuss your foundation options; we are always happy to talk with you about your site! If ground improvements are not the best fit for your project, we can still help you with our wide array of geotechnical foundation construction alternatives.

Ground improvement design

Hayward Baker has extensive experience designing and constructing complex specialty geotechnical and foundation solutions. Our work is executed to meet strict schedule and budget demands of the General Contractor and Owner. Hayward Baker takes pride in our ability to tackle any geotechnical design or construction issue, large or small. Please consider Hayward Baker as a design build partner on your next challenging subsurface project.

David Mazzei, P.E., is project manager and David Finocchio, P.E., is Northeast business development manager for Hayward Baker, Inc., Cumberland, R.I.