Brooklyn, New York – At 40 stories, the gleaming 29 Flatbush Avenue apartment tower is poised to reshape the Brooklyn skyline. But before any steel went up, ICON Equipment was called in by New York Concrete to provide a slide rail shoring system in order for proper soil remediation to take place followed by foundation pile installation.
The 327-unit apartment complex required the removal of roughly 18 tons of contaminated material under the requirements of the Brownfield Remediation Program as well as installation of over 250 foundation piles 70 feet deep. The project’s adjacent structures were very sensitive and included the New York Transit Authority, site of the Fulton Street subway line.
A quick-engineered shoring solution to prevent cross contamination during soil remediation was needed.
“The problem is that the site itself – while offering a large footprint for a tower – had a limited amount of space due to the ongoing foundation system installation and pile operations,” says, John Russo, COO of the New York Concrete. “In addition, we had to keep vibrations to a minimum while remediating the site and installing the piles due to the sensitive surroundings.”
Richard Odierna, the New York regional manager for ICON Equipment, said the project’s space constraints and an aggressive schedule caused some planning difficulties. However, ICON was able to engineer a shoring solution quickly and worked closely with New York Concrete during the slide rail system installation, which was a two-bay, double-rail system 30.52-foot long by 32-foot wide space and 16 feet deep.
“The limited space on this particular site was a challenge to install a system of this size, but the experienced staff had the system installed by the second day,” Odierna said. “Our field technician, Pete Custy, was on site to provide support during the installation.”
New York Concrete was then able to remove the 18 tons of contaminated material successfully without cross contamination. The next step was to install 20 to 30 piles within the remediated pit. To do so, New York Concrete constructed a dirt ramp into the slide rail system to get their pile installation machinery close enough to the foundation as possible.
Russo was pleased with the ICON Equipment and support in the field.
“We needed a close-quarters, quick-engineered shoring system, with limited vibration during installation,” Russo said. “It had to meet the tough standards of the NYC Department of Buildings and the Transit Authority. ICON was the obvious choice to do this work.”
Russo is glad that the team and equipment from ICON was part of the project. “We’re very happy the ICON product and the service we received,” he continued.
The gleaming new 29 Flatbush development is expected to be completed no later than 2013.
Since 1982, ICON has steadily increased its market share and product offerings to become a full-service trench shoring and pilot-tube guided boring company. It is earning a reputation as the nation’s industry leader for underground construction projects. The company has the in-house resources to handle projects of any size across North America. ICON also offers a full range of services, such as consulting, design, engineering, manufacturing and distribution. The company also leases or rents equipment to organizations.
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