Geotechnical Engineering for a Two-Mile Lakefront Corridor

140 borings, most of them on the water.

Evening waterfront promenade with palm trees, benches, sailboats, and lit walkway under a twilight sky.

Waterfront promenade with palm trees, benches, metal railings, and a clear blue sky on a sunny day.

Construction site along waterfront with steel sheet piling and yellow floating barrier in water near residential area

Aerial view of a coastal city with marina, residential buildings, greenery, and cloudy blue sky.

Evening waterfront promenade with palm trees, benches, sailboats, and lit walkway under a twilight sky.

Waterfront promenade with palm trees, benches, metal railings, and a clear blue sky on a sunny day.

Construction site along waterfront with steel sheet piling and yellow floating barrier in water near residential area

Aerial view of a coastal city with marina, residential buildings, greenery, and cloudy blue sky.

01

The project

Sanford RiverWalk is a two-mile lakefront corridor combining a new seawall, relocated utilities, new roadway, traffic signalization, a ten-foot bike and pedestrian path, hardscape, and plaza development. It is one of the most complex projects the City of Sanford has undertaken, and one of the largest Bechtol has worked on.
02

What it took

We reviewed preliminary plans with the project civil Engineer to coordinate scope, then completed geotechnical explorations for the proposed sheet pile retaining wall, the roadway and sidewalk improvements, and the lighting foundations.

More than 140 borings went in along the alignment, a substantial portion of them in Lake Monroe itself. Reaching them took truck-mounted, track-mounted, and barge-mounted rigs, all drilling under our supervision on one contract.
03

The result

We evaluated subsurface soil and groundwater conditions, ran classification testing in our laboratory on selected samples, and issued a geotechnical report with findings, evaluations, and recommendations for the sheet pile wall, roadway, and foundation elements.