McMahon & Mann prepared shoring design plans, specifications, and calculations for the addition to University at Buffalo’s earthquake engineering building. The existing building is founded on drilled shafts to bedrock and has a slab on grade first floor with no basement. The addition has a basement; therefore it was necessary to develop a shoring plan to retain the soil between the existing drilled piers and beneath the floor slab.

We worked closely with the designer and the contractor to develop a design for a soldier pile and lagging wall that would fit between the existing drilled piers and the piers that would be installed for the addition. The soldier pile and lagging wall was also positioned so that it could serve as the back form for the new basement wall.

We installed inclinometers at two locations along the wall and monitored lateral movements during construction. The data showed that the cantilevered wall moved between 0.15 and 0.25 inches throughout construction. Survey monuments mounted on the grade beam and floor slab of the existing building indicated no vertical movement.