UNIVERSITY OF ALABAMA HEWSON HALL

PROJECT OVERVIEW
Morris-Shea installed Continuous Flight Auger (CFA) piles for the new Hewson Hall deep foundation at the University of Alabama Culverhouse College of Business in Tuscaloosa. The building’s foundation was originally designed as 36”, 42”  and 48” drilled shafts supporting cast-in-place concrete columns and grade beams. The University substituted an alternate bid based on design loads prepared by The Structural Design Group, the Structural Engineer of Record (EOR).  Morris-Shea provided a Value Engineered Alternate design consisting of 24” and 36” CFA piles capable of satisfying all load requirements. CFA piles were ideal for the project’s soil conditions and vibration and noise concerns..

MORRIS-SHEA VE-ALTERNATE DESIGN
The new project design, developed by the Morris-Shea team and The Structural Design Group, produced a Value Engineered Alternate design that provided a one-for-one replacement at all locations. At locations where CFA piles supported grade beams, these piles were constructed to the bottom of grade beam. Where the CFA piles directly supported the columns and where column diagonals were larger than the pile diameter, Morris-Shea collaborated with the EOR to design transition caps to develop vertical reinforcing and column dowels for the CFA piles. The Morris-Shea VE-Alternate design offered significant savings and helped to bring a project to completion on time.