If you drive along I70 between I25 and I225 you have seen all the work going on! I’m very impressed with the drastic changes always taking place and the progress being made. EVstudio was fortunate to be hired by Thorcon Shotcrete and Shoring to design all of the permanent and temporary soil nail walls throughout the project. It’s stacking up to be a lot of walls! Because soil nail walls are a perfect cost-effective way to retain soil top down, and with a highway being dropped from 20 to 40ft there is a lot of soil to retain. We have also helped to show the speed and cost of construction of soil nail walls are better than large diameter soldier piles.
The majority of the temporary soil nail walls are along abutments to allow for the construction stages of the new bridges. Soon, temporary walls will also be used as the north half of the highway is built below grade now that the permanent soil nail walls are in place.
The soil has held up great, allowing for solid bar soil nails, but we also put in a lot of hard work with CDOT to get hollow bar nails approved for use and determined proper corrosion protection. This will help lay the groundwork for future projects using hollow injection nails on CDOT projects.
Sometimes it’s hard to see everything going on with Central70 when you are driving along the highway. You miss the detail of all the hard work going into the project. This was a drive-by photo I snapped under Colorado Blvd pointing out to my kids what I designed. They weren’t as excited as I was.
If your government project needs shoring services we would be happy to consult! Contact us to schedule an appointment.
