Micropiles

Northwest Soil Stabilization installs micropiles, ground anchors, and other deep foundation elements. Micropiles are typically small diameter drilled and grouted friction piles that can be installed in virtually any ground condition -- from cohesionless sands to R5 Basalt. The drilling equipment used for installation ranges from extremely small rigs (500 to 10,000lbs.) for low overhead interior work to larger rigs (20,000 to 50,000 lbs.) where clearance issues are not a concern and production is paramount. Micropiles are reinforced with high strength all thread rebar and may include steel casing in the upper sections of the pile to provide added stability and isolation from down drag forces in compressible strata. Prior to production pile installation, a sacrificial test micropile is installed at the site to determine the grout-to-ground bond capacity of the system. Final micropile design is based on test pile performance.

NW Soil has constructed micropiles in some of the most challenging work locations -- at a transmission tower site in the Tillamook State Forest accessible only by helicopter, from a barge on Oswego Lake in the middle of winter, in existing hotel basements in downtown Portland -- in a variety of ground conditions. We take pride in our ability to approach complex drilling problems with creativity. For us, challenge is just another word for opportunity.

The company founder and lead geotechnical engineer has more than 30 years experience in every phase of geotechnical engineering practice including site investigation, complex soil structure interaction modeling, and design of classic and hybrid geo-structural systems. NW Soil has state of the art analytical tools including limit state software incorporating structural elements and finite element software to analyze the most complicated soil structure interaction problems. Our experience and expertise in geotechnical engineering design allows NW Soil to provide shoring and foundation design using “outside the box” concepts to maximize the effectiveness of systems tailored to your project, or construction support to your engineer.