GWS Completes another Soil Stabilization Project for FDNY

When the century-old Emergency Management Services (EMS) Station #39 was preparing for a renovation, the Fire Department of New York (FDNY) project management team noticed differential settlement throughout the building. In order to remediate the weak soils, Cameron Engineering was asked to design a solution and immediately selected Ground Works Solutions’ proprietary chemical grout injection application.

The Station #39 rehabilitation project included 6,576 sqft of subsoil, covering nearly the entire footprint of the facility, which required increased bearing capacity necessary to support the new load. To do this, Ground Works Solutions (GWS) utilized its Deep Injection Process to stabilize the soil and bring its bearing capacity to the targeted requirements. The Deep Injection Process is a proprietary application whereby a two-part, expansive structural chemical grout is injected in a predetermined grid pattern at multiple depths to create optimal saturation of the chemical grout with the existing soil to densify, compact and restore and improve the soil’s bearing capacity.

This is the second project that GWS has performed for FDNY where a historic building was recommissioned to modern standards and usefulness. The benefit of GWS’ Deep Injection Process for rehabilitating historic structures is the speed of installation, cost-effectiveness, and minimal impact to the construction site.

“A requirement of our contract was that GWS’ operations were to have no impact on the additional renovation efforts that were taking place at Station #39,” stated Tony Alfano, Project Engineer for GWS. “Since our footprint is limited to a box truck and hoses, we are able to perform our work in small sections while additional contractors are able to work easily around us. Additionally, since our polymer sets to 95% capacity within 15 minutes, we are able to treat a large area quickly and cost-effectively.”

The project took place over a 6-day period and was completed under budget. Additionally, a one-year settlement inspection was recently completed for the first project site, FDNY Station #229, which reflected positive results and confirmed that no observable settlement had occurred. Overall, the EMS Station #39 and the FDNY Station #229 projects saved the City of New York a substantial amount of money in rehabilitation vs. replacement and ensured the historical buildings’ foundations were adequately supported for modern operational needs.