Geolabs, Inc.
Moana Pacific Condominium
The Moana Pacific high-rise condominium project is located at the intersection of Piikoi Street and Kapiolani Boulevard in Honolulu on the Island of Oahu, Hawaii. The development consisted of a luxury high-rise condominium with a five-level above ground parking garage encompassing the majority of the project site. Two oval-shaped, high-rise residential towers above the parking garage are located at the northeastern and southwestern portions of the property. Each residential tower included 46 stories of apartments and two levels of penthouses, comprising a total of 416 living units for each tower.
Geolabs served as the geotechnical consultant. The subsurface conditions at the project site generally consisted of fill materials at the ground surface underlain by soft lagoonal deposits. Coral formation interbedded with layers of coralline detritus was encountered below the lagoonal deposits. Based on the subsurface conditions encountered and the structural demands on the building foundation and parking garage foundation, Geolabs recommended supporting the new structures by a deep foundation system consisting of cast-in-place concrete drilled shafts. The high capacity drilled shaft foundations derived support from friction in the alluvial and coralline deposits beneath the site.
Drilled shafts with diameters of 24, 42 and 48 inches extending down to depths up to 130 feet below the ground surface were recommended based on the structural demands of up to 3,500 kips per drilled shaft. The larger diameter and deeper drilled shafts were generally recommended for areas with relatively high column loads, such as the main tower structure. The project consisted of installing about 310 drilled shafts to support the building and parking structures. Geolabs observed installation of all the drilled shaft foundations and provided Special Inspection services.