When a geotechnical report comes back showing rock just a few feet below grade, it can throw out a whole foundation plan overnight, even for a system as flexible as helical piers.
In this episode, host and project consultant Jonathan Dove, talks with PermaTrak engineer Kyle Stanton, PE, about what actually drives a boardwalk foundation decision, from soil conditions and span length to the load-bearing tradeoffs between shallow and deep foundations.
They walk through the three main categories of deep foundations used on boardwalk projects, why helical piers have become one of the most common solutions, and what happens when site conditions rule them out entirely.
Key Timestamps:
- (00:00) Introduction: today's topic is foundations and helical piers
- (00:44) What actually drives a boardwalk foundation decision
- (01:24) Dead load vs. live load, and combining load cases
- (02:16) Matching foundation lifespan to the boardwalk superstructure
- (02:52) Shallow vs. deep foundations: how the determination is made
- (03:47) The three categories of deep foundations for boardwalks
- (04:40) When to use a helical pier vs. another deep foundation
- (05:36) How a helical pier system works: components and installation
- (06:31) What to specify before bid: load testing and installation requirements
- (07:16) When helical piers are not the right fit
- (08:11) Common foundation specification mistakes to avoid
- (09:44) Free helical pier specification available at permatrak.com
- (09:59) Bonus Q&A: what to do when shallow rock isn't good enough for a shallow foundation
One theme that comes up more than once in this episode: a foundation decision made without a site-specific geotechnical report is really just a guess, and it's rarely the guess that saves money in the long run. Kyle also flags a mistake he sees on real projects: pulling foundation details from a site "two miles away" and assuming the geotechnical conditions will match. They usually don't.
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