LOAD-TEST PROGRAM FOR RAVENEL BRIDGE
An Engineering Excellence Award-Winning Project

S&ME employed a combination of engineering technologies never before used anywhere in the world to help successfully reduce costs in contractor bids for the planned U.S. 17 replacement bridge between Charleston and Mt. Pleasant, South Carolina.

As part of the SC Department of Transportation's engineering design team for the project, led by Sverdrup, Inc., S&ME accepted challenging responsibilities for the foundation design of the $600 million bridge. Our studies along the bridge alignment gave clear evidence that large-diameter foundation shafts were appropriate and quickly constructable. However, shafts of the size and depth proposed by S&ME had never before been used in the Charleston area. 

To answer the challenges, S&ME developed a load-test program that included the world's first-ever combined use of Statnamic testing and blast-induced liquefaction. The firm also employed a series of other tests never before used in South Carolina, varying the program to address as many issues as possible. S&ME's complex testing involved 12 test shafts at three sites with greatly different subsurface characteristics and was completed within an accelerated schedule. The program took into account the effects of various soil types, ship movements, earthquakes and hurricanes. S&ME also evaluated the technical effects of various drilling fluids and construction methods.

The program generated data that saved millions of dollars in taxpayer expense by providing contractors with cost-saving information that reduced their potential risks and gave them the knowledge to provide cost-effective proposals. The testing program helped establish engineering parameters necessary to design an economical, safe structure, and it added greatly to the understanding of how drilled shafts will perform under axial and lateral loading in soils that engineers routinely encounter throughout the U.S. Coastal Plain.

This project won the highest award (Palmetto Award) from ACEC-SC in 2002.