Downloaded from ascelibrary.org by Universidad Militar Nueva Granada on 01/21/21. Copyright ASCE.

For personal use only; all rights reserved.

Recent Advances in the Top-Down Construction of a 26.4 Meter Deep Soil Nail
Retention System—Bellevue Technology Tower

D. M. Cotton1 and R.D. Luark2

1
Kleinfelder, 14710 NE 87TH Street, Suite 100, Redmond, WA, 98052
Email: dcotton@kleinfelder.com
2
Kleinfelder, 14710 NE 87TH Street, Suite 100, Redmond, WA, 98052
Email: rluark@kleinfelder.com

ABSTRACT
This paper covers several aspects of the Bellevue Technology Tower Project in
downtown Bellevue, completed in 2007 after a project start in 2001. The base of the
excavation was completed 26.4 m below 108th Avenue NE, with an additional 2.1 m
excavation for the mat foundation which extended the total depth of the excavation to
approximately 28.5 m below street grade. It is believed that this was the deepest soil
nail wall, built to date in the U.S., with a top-down construction procedure. The top-
down building procedure includes construction of the permanent 31 - 46 cm thick
shotcrete basement wall for the building as the facing for the temporary soil nail
shoring in lifts, eliminating the requirement for temporary facing. During the
excavation and shotcrete placement on the bottom row of the excavation, at an average
depth of 22.7 m, the 2001 Nisqually Earthquake occurred with an Mw 6.8 event. No
ground loss was experienced, and only nominal permanent lateral displacements were
measured after the earthquake.

Recent advances that were implemented during the design and construction included
the use of strut nails to support vertical loads and limit deflections in the first lift
where fill is typically encountered, use of a composite soil nail wall with vertical
elements to support an 8 story building along the south property line, use of splayed
nails in a re-entrant corner with a 3 story building surcharge, and use of nails to carry
vertical loads of the conveyor for excavated soils.

Finally, an extended life study of the system was completed after the project was put
on hold prior to completing the floor slabs for the garage structure. The temporary soil
nail system was only designed for the life of the excavation which in this case was
approximately one year. In addition, a temporary wall is not designed for earthquake
resistance, although the static factor of safety does provide for some inherent
resistance. The soil nails are not designed with any corrosion protection for the
extended life. After evaluating the corrosion rate and seismic recurrence of critical
earthquakes an extended life of 4 to 8 years was determined for the temporary soil nail
retention system.

375
Copyright ASCE 2010 2010 Earth Retention Conference (ER2010)
Earth Retention Conference 3
 376 EARTH RETENTION CONFERENCE
Downloaded from ascelibrary.org by Universidad Militar Nueva Granada on 01/21/21. Copyright ASCE. For personal use only; all rights reserved.

INTRODUCTION
The top-down soil nail wall for the Bellevue Technology Tower included the
following features:

The use of strut nails for face stabilization and deflection control;
The use of strut nails to carry vertical loads;
The use of splayed nails for a re-entrant corner;
A composite soil nail system with vertical elements to carry vertical loads and for face
stabilization;
The use of top-down construction to build the permanent basement wall with
temporary nails to the deepest recorded depth in the U.S. to date at 26.4 m, (2001);
A stable seismic response of the soil nail wall during an Mw 6.8 earthquake event,
and;
A stable performance of the soil nail wall for 4 years beyond the original design life
following an analysis of the seismic risk and corrosion of the steel nails.

The proposed Bellevue Technology Tower excavation encompassed an area slightly

smaller than a city block, 59.1 by 50.9 m in downtown Bellevue, Washington. A site
plan is shown on Figure 1, which illustrates that the project site is bounded on two
sides by city streets and existing buildings on the other two sides. The shape of the
excavation also includes a re-entrant corner. The Key Bank Tower, located on the west
boundary of the excavation, has three levels of below grade parking garage. An 8 story
office tower on top of the garage is set back from the excavation face approximately 6
m. The planned development was to include a twenty story building with eight stories
of below grade parking. The below grade floor slabs at 8 levels were intended to
provide for the final lateral load support. However, due to an economic downturn in
the local market the project construction temporarily ceased following the excavation
and foundation construction. Therefore, an evaluation of the soil nail system for an
extended period beyond the 12-month planned designed life needed to be completed
after construction ceased.

The base of the excavation was constructed to a depth of 26.4 m, below 108th Avenue
N.E. It is believed that this is the deepest soil nail wall, built to date in the US, with a
top-down construction procedure. The top-down building procedure includes building
the permanent 300 mm to 450 mm thick shotcrete basement wall, with a double
curtain of steel reinforcing, as the excavation progresses, installing the temporary nail
system to a maximum depth of 26.4 m. A 2.1 m thick mat foundation was excavated
approximately 6 m inside the excavation line extending the total depth of the
excavation to approximately 28.5 m below street grade. The excavation required
approximately 5,060 square m of permanent shotcrete wall construction. During the
excavation and shotcrete placement of the last level of nails, at an average depth of
74.5 feet, the 2001 Nisqually Earthquake occurred with an Mw 6.8 event. No ground
loss was experienced, and only nominal permanent lateral displacements were
measured after the earthquake.

376
Copyright ASCE 2010 2010 Earth Retention Conference (ER2010)
Earth Retention Conference 3
 EARTH RETENTION CONFERENCE 377
Downloaded from ascelibrary.org by Universidad Militar Nueva Granada on 01/21/21. Copyright ASCE. For personal use only; all rights reserved.

Figure 1

In general, the site is underlain

by variable, minor amounts of
fill, overlying dense till, dense
advance outwash sands and
gravels, and glaciolacustrine
deposits of silt. The fill varied in
thickness from less than 0.3 m to
4.3 m in the northwest corner of
property, and consisted of loose
to dense gravel and sand on the
west side of the site, and soft to
hard silts with sand and gravel
on the east side. The native
glacial till is generally a dense
sandy silt, with little gravel, and
ranged from 10 m thick on the
east side to zero feet on the west.
The advance outwash gravel was
Figure 2

377
Copyright ASCE 2010 2010 Earth Retention Conference (ER2010)
Earth Retention Conference 3
 378 EARTH RETENTION CONFERENCE
Downloaded from ascelibrary.org by Universidad Militar Nueva Granada on 01/21/21. Copyright ASCE. For personal use only; all rights reserved.

generally very dense gravel, with some fine to coarse sand and trace silt. Below the
advance outwash gravels were the advance outwash sands, consisting of a very dense
fine to coarse sand, with trace silt and some gravel. The advance outwash sand and
gravels extended to an average depth of 19 m where the glaciolacustrine deposits were
encountered. The glaciolacustrine silts were generally hard and very dense silt and
clayey silt with a trace of very fine sand and subrounded gravel. Groundwater was
encountered at or near the base of the excavation, at an average depth of 22 m below
street level. Groundwater appears to be perched on top of the glaciolacustrine deposits.

SOIL NAIL WALL DESIGN

The soil nail wall design consisted of up to thirteen rows of nails on a 1.8 m by 1.8 m
nail pattern. The upper row of nails included a strut nail system used to support
vertical loads in the upper fill materials, as shown in Figure 2. Strut nails were also
used to support the weight of a conveyor about midway down the north wall, which
was being used to

Figure 3

remove soil from the base of the excavation. The platform load was approximately
150 kips, supported by 5 strut nails, and is shown schematically in Figure 3. The
maximum wall height on the north wall, 26.4 m, included nail lengths that ranged
from a maximum for 20.1 m in the upper eight rows to decreasing lengths of 16.5,
15.2, 13.7 and 9.1m. The bar sizes ranged from 32 mm diameter 150 grade steel to 25
mm diameter 150 grade steel. The bars were typically inclined at 15 degrees, except
for the upper row which was inclined at 20 degrees to avoid utilities. Strut nails were
inclined at 45 degrees. A typical section is shown in Figure 2. The splayed layout for
the southwest re-entrant corner is shown in Figure 4. The splayed nail design is done

378
Copyright ASCE 2010 2010 Earth Retention Conference (ER2010)
Earth Retention Conference 3
 EARTH RETENTION CONFERENCE 379
Downloaded from ascelibrary.org by Universidad Militar Nueva Granada on 01/21/21. Copyright ASCE. For personal use only; all rights reserved.

simply by taking the 2D analysis performed using the program GoldNail, and then
increasing the length of the nail according to the geometric orientation of each nail
splayed.

The stability analyses were performed using the program GoldNail, Verison 3.11 on
five critical sections for each of the five walls surrounding the project. The soil design
parameters used in the analysis were based on the field tests completed during the site
investigation, laboratory testing, and the author’s experience in the Bellevue area and
Puget Sound Region.

Figure 4
Specifically the soil nail design parameters used in the final analysis were:

TABLE 1.
Soil Unit Unit Weight Friction Angle Cohesion (PSF) Ultimate Out
(PCF) (Degrees) Resistance
(Kips/Ft)
Fill 120 34 100 6.3
Glacial Till 135 40 300 12
Advance 125 40 100 8.4
Outwash
Lacustrine Silts 125 34 300 4.2
and Clays

379
Copyright ASCE 2010 2010 Earth Retention Conference (ER2010)
Earth Retention Conference 3
 380 EARTH RETENTION CONFERENCE
Downloaded from ascelibrary.org by Universidad Militar Nueva Granada on 01/21/21. Copyright ASCE. For personal use only; all rights reserved.

A factor of safety of 2 was utilized for nail pull out and a factor of safety of 1.35 on
the soil strength parameters.

Figure 5

Another one of the features on this project was the use of vertical elements to stabilize
a potential ground loss problem at the face of the excavation on the west side. The
excavation section is shown in Figure 5, which illustrates the Key Bank Tower
parking garage and tower footings. Anticipated lateral stresses at the face of the
excavation combined with excavating 2.4 m vertical faces in the relatively clean
advance outwash sands and gravels, led to the decision to include the use of vertical
face stabilization elements. These are shown in Figure 5 and consisted of 76 mm O.D.
schedule 80 pipe in a 150 mm diameter drill hole filled with grout and spaced 0.9 m
on center. Vertical elements were extended 5.5 m below the basement footing for the
bank tower, which included three rows of nails. It was felt that adequate confinement
would be provided at this level so that no loss of ground support would be experienced
below the footing. Also shown in Figure 5 is the use of strut nails which were included
to control deflection, carry imposed vertical loads from the adjacent building, and
improve face stabilization during excavation.

380
Copyright ASCE 2010 2010 Earth Retention Conference (ER2010)
Earth Retention Conference 3
 EARTH RETENTION CONFERENCE 381
Downloaded from ascelibrary.org by Universidad Militar Nueva Granada on 01/21/21. Copyright ASCE. For personal use only; all rights reserved.

PERFORMANCE
The excavation began in October 2000 and was finished in March 2001. During
excavation and construction of the excavation support wall, optical survey monitoring
was performed that recorded maximum horizontal displacements on the order of
0.001H to 0.002H, where H is the maximum wall height. This resulted in permanent
displacements at the top of the wall ranging from 6 mm (west wall) to 50 mm (north
wall). These displacements during excavation and construction of the wall are normal
and within the range for the soil type at the site.

The soil nail system performed well during the Nisqually earthquake of February 28,
2001, which occurred during excavation of the deepest lift of the excavation with only
nominal movements of the soil nail wall. Maximum movements of 6 mm were noted
on the re-entrant corner of the excavation, typically regarded as the weakest point of
the structure. This movement was well within the design criteria for the wall.
Additionally, no structure damage to neighboring buildings was discovered. The peak
ground accelerations produced by the Nisqually Earthquake in Bellevue were on the
order of .11g, about one-third of the design earthquake for permanent structures in the
Seattle area.

EXTENDED LIFE ANALYSIS

Finally, an extended life study for the system had to be completed since the project
was put on hold prior to completing the floor slabs for the garage. A temporary soil
nail system is only designed for the life of the excavation which in this case was
approximately one year. Therefore the owner requested an evaluation of the soil nail
system for an estimated life of reasonable performance. A temporary wall is not
designed for earthquake resistance, although the static factor of safety does provide for
some inherent resistance. This was certainly the case for the resistance provided
during the Nisqually earthquake. In addition, the soil nails are not designed with a
corrosion protection for extended life performance. Based on the results for an
extensive seismic analysis of the as built condition it was determined that the existing
temporary excavation support system was adequate to resist the UBC design
earthquake over the next 4 to 8 years.

CONCLUSIONS
The project involved several features that were innovative at that period of time in the
United States, which included the construction of the permanent building walls from
the top down, eliminating the need for temporary shoring facing. In addition, vertical
elements were used to provide face stability to allow soil nailing shoring to support
adjacent building foundation surcharge loads. Also, the use of strut nails was
employed to support the vertical load of the permanent building wall as well as
temporary construction loads. Finally, due to an economic down turn, the project was
placed on hold, requiring an evaluation of the existing temporary support system for
seismic loading and long term corrosion potential. The use of these innovative features
resulted in significant cost savings to the project.

381
Copyright ASCE 2010 2010 Earth Retention Conference (ER2010)
Earth Retention Conference 3