Press Blocks, Portland, OR (2023)

Shoring System: Anchored Soldier Piles

Client: Security Properties

General Contractor: Turner Construction Company

Shoring Contractor: Pacific Foundation

Shoring Face Area: 44,900 Square Feet

Wall Depth Range: 46 to 58 feet

Status: Completed 2023

The project development included a high-rise tower with four to five levels of below grade parking within an entire city block in downtown Portland. The site was particularly challenging for a number of reasons: it was already occupied by an old concrete printing press building built with 30-ft high basement walls over 18 inches thick with large buttresses, pilasters, and corbels throughout the wall structure that had to be both tied-back and left in place in some areas, as well as removed and demolished as the shoring was being built. In addition, there was an existing tunnel connecting the west wall to the block across the street that needed to be maintained and shored around while the headwalls to the tunnel were also removed; and lastly the east side of the project included massive amounts of sewer structures in the right of way that made anchoring extremely challenging, which when combined with a reduced easement width required a precise locating of piles and higher frequency of anchors throughout the wall need in order to make the design work. The project was completed successfully by Turner and Pacific Foundation in the firm Portland silts and medium sands, with not a single substandard anchor, movements under ½ an inch on all walls, no damage to the tunnel, and no conflicts with any of the dozens of utilities that existed along all the walls.