Railroad Load Transfer Platform
- Date: Spring 2016
- Location: Central Minnesota
- Project Type: Civil/Railroad
About this Project
Utilizing Viking’s high capacity products and taking advantage of the speed of installation of helical piers solved a soil conundrum that came up at the last second.
- Quantity of Piles: 260
- Pile Size: 4.50″ OD .337w
- Torque Requirement: 36,000 ft-lbs
- Pile Depth: 35′
A Sense of Urgency
Viking Helical Anchors was contacted on Marth 16th to provide a solution to supply helical piles and an engineering submittal for a railroad load transfer platform. A late soils report indicated that the planned traditional foundation would not be adequate in the organic and soft clay soils. Our engineering partners proposed a new pile layout taking advantage of Viking’s industry best torque capacities to reduce the material costs, but more importantly it reduced the quantity of piles and installation time.
Solutions through Teamwork
By March 31st the material and engineering package was approved. Within 2 weeks of approval Viking had expedited the procurement and delivery of 256 piles averaging 35′. Our on-site field support team helped the installation crew with equipment setup and guidance on improving production rates. The 256 x 4.5″ OD .337w helical piles and load transfer platform were required to be installed within 100 hours from April 18th to April 22nd. Two crews completed the project in 86 hours while the railroad line was still in active service.