A new 3-story material handling facility was recently completed for FedEx at the Memphis International Airport. The planned facility incorporated wide bay spacings of up to 60 feet with heavy column loads exceeding 1,500 kips. 

Soil conditions on this site consisted of up to 4 feet of existing fill, underlain by soft to firm lean clay extending to depths of about 24 feet. The upper stratum of soils are underlain by very dense sand and gravel stratum to the boring termination depths. Groundwater was encountered in the borings at depths of 28 to 38 feet below existing grade.

In order to meet the building settlement criteria, deep foundations were originally considered to support the heavy column loads. The Geopier® Rammed Aggregate Pier system was compared to the original deep foundation solution. The PCI and Geopier team worked closely with the General Contractor and Structural Engineer to help save the owner over $500,000 and time savings exceeding a couple months when compared to the deep foundation option.  PCI installed over 2,000 Rammed Aggregate Piers to depths up to 30 feet with one crew to meet the tight construction schedule.