Edmonton ICE District Towers: Foundation Design and Construction (1)

As part of Edmonton ICE District development, four towers ranging from 29 to 66 storeys are

being constructed on the south side of the Rogers Place arena. Geotechnical investigations

for the tower development included drilling and coring of bore holes to more than 90 m in

depth, in situ pressuremeter and seismic cone penetration testing, and laboratory testing to

characterize the strength and stiffness of the overburden soils and underlying bedrock.

Based on the results of geotechnical investigations, piled raft foundations were chosen to

support the two tallest towers. Osterberg cell (O-cell) load tests were undertaken on two fully

instrumented piles to validate and optimize the foundation design. Numerical simulations were

undertaken to estimate tower foundation settlement and lateral deformation. Foundations of

the two tallest towers consist of two 3 to 3.5 m thick raft slabs and 145 drilled shafts, 1.5 m

to 1.8 m in diameter and up to 75 m deep.

During foundation construction, full time geotechnical inspections were carried out. Quality

assurance of the tremied concrete piles included crosshole sonic logging, impulse response

testing, downhole camera inspections, and coring of selected piles to ensure the structural

integrity of the piles.

The presentation provides an overview of the geotechnical investigations, foundation design

and construction for the ICE District Towers.