Geotechnical expertise helps bring new California airport terminal to life

Client

Hollywood Burbank Airport

Location

Burbank, CA

Challenge

It takes collaboration, coordination, and expertise to take part in a complicated design-build project like the new 355,000-square-foot passenger terminal replacement project at Hollywood Burbank Airport in California. Our Los Angeles office was selected to provide subsurface exploration and geotechnical engineering design recommendations for the proposed terminal replacement and parking garage. 

Design-build projects require collaboration, resources, and responsiveness in order to maintain critical work schedules. Our senior project managers were active participants in several meetings with the contractor and design team. The data our exploration team members collected and the analysis our engineers performed helped identify opportunities for optimization and cost savings.

Solution

We were asked to coordinate with the structural engineering teams for foundation optimization of both the new airport terminal and the new parking garage. Our data and analysis determined that a shallow foundation system could be used for the project, leading to significant cost savings for our client. Our coordination with the structural engineering teams, which included different consultants for the terminal and the parking garage, helped to save foundation costs by developing a shallow foundation system rather than supporting the structures on deep foundations.

Results

Our work, completed in 2023, was estimated to save our client money over the course of construction, which is scheduled to be completed in 2026. 

Our scope of services included advancement of hollow-stem auger borings and cone penetration test soundings, taxiway pavement coring, a geophysical survey for use in site characterization and seismic analysis, laboratory testing, engineering analysis, and preparation of a geotechnical report with design and construction recommendations. Our analyses justified that shallow foundations would be feasible from a geotechnical standpoint. By avoiding the use of deep foundations, potential environmental impacts were minimized, and construction and materials costs were reduced.  

Safety is the first priority on every project, and this was no exception. We held pre-task planning meetings with all necessary parties on the project site to identify the scope of work and inform our crew of potential size hazards before work began. With multiple crews, night work, and a secured project area all coming into play, effective communication was essential in keeping everyone on the project site safe. There were no safety-related incidents on this project, an accomplishment specifically recognized by our client.