Geolabs, Inc.

The Honolulu High-Capacity Transit Corridor Project (HHCTCP) involved the construction and operation of a fixed-guideway transit system in the corridor between Kapolei and the University of Hawaii at Manoa with a branch to Waikiki on the Island of Oahu, Hawaii.

 

The initial conceptual plans [circa 2008] were for the guideway alignment to advance the project design team efforts with the conceptual engineering phase of the aerial guideway foundations being the primary focus.

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The HHCTCP consisted of a dual track, aerially supported guideway, transit stations, and transit system appurtenant facilities, and requires revisions to the existing infrastructure, including utilities associated with project execution. The top of rail for the guideway varied from almost 29 feet to 75 feet above the existing ground. Spans between columns were planned as being in the range of 125 feet ± 25 feet based on studies completed for segmental construction. Several sections required spans exceeding 180 feet were designated special structures and were envisioned as balanced cantilever guideway construction.

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Geolabs provided geotechnical engineering services in support of the conceptual engineering and preliminary engineering phases of the project. Our scope of work consisted of drilling and sampling 130 borings totaling over 16,000 lineal feet of geotechnical exploration; performing seismic cone penetration tests; performing seismic shear wave velocity profiling; converting selected borings into groundwater monitoring points with installation of vibrating wire piezometers; and monitoring groundwater levels in the groundwater monitoring points.

 

Our geotechnical engineering efforts also included performing preliminary foundation analyses including compression load and lateral load analyses to establish the diameters and lengths of the drilled shaft foundations along the entire 20-mile Minimum Operating Segment during the Conceptual Engineering and Preliminary Engineering Phases.