Helical Piles at Berklee College of Music – Boston, MA

July 10, 2011

Project Details: Berklee College of Music, located in Boston, Massachusetts, was renovating two exsting Brownstone buildings to make safety upgrades, including the installation of a new elevator. Deep foundation support was required because this area of Boston was filled-in and the soils conditions were generally unfavorable for conventional spread footings.

Helical Piles: Engineered Foundation Technologies installed a total of 40 helical piles to support the new loads. The pilings advanced through the poor fill soils and anchored into the Boston Clue Clay below. Pile lengths varied from about 18 feet deep to 28 feet deep.

Load Testing: A load test was performed to ensure the piles could hold the design loads. EFT built an anchored load frame and subsequently conducted a pile load test on a helical pier. The helical pile successfully was tested and the loading pattern was analyzed by project managers. Once production started, the piling work was successfully completed in 10 days.