Summary

An architect for a church retained a GBA member firm to perform a limited-scope geotechnical study for a federally funded retirement home. Only boring logs and a brief letter report to the structural engineer were needed for the design of a pile foundation. Unfortunately, the design was not within the budget and the structural engineer refused to change the design and withdrew from the project. The replacement structural engineer redesigned the foundations and satisfactory load tests were performed but the federal agency balked until a geotechnical study was provided for the revision. A new geotech was retained but after the agency reviewed their report, the agency directed that a mat foundation be used. The church filed suit against the original member firm for the new costs.

Our Hosts:

Elizabeth is the Principal Geotechnical Engineer at JLT Consultants in Boise, Idaho. Elizabeth has performed and/or assisted with numerous geotechnical investigations throughout Idaho, Oregon, Washington, and Wyoming managing projects, providing geotechnical design, project quality control, cost and value engineering, and evaluating geotechnical constructability issues.

Abi is a Project Consultant at SME experienced in managing a variety of steel, concrete, coatings, and nondestructive testing projects. She specializes in managing projects related to DOT fabrication quality assurance reviews but also supports project managers throughout SME’s various service groups.

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This episode was produced by the following GBA Members: