Laredo Middle School
GP3® Increases Bearing Capacity and Provides Other Ground Improvement Benefits
- Owner: Cherry Creek School District
- General Contractor: Adolfson & Peterson Construction
- Structural Engineer: KL&A
- Geotechnical Engineer: GROUND Engineering Consultants
- Ground Improvement Engineering: Geopier Designer
- Licensee: Peterson Contractors, Inc.
The Laredo Middle School development, in Aurora, Colorado, consisted of a new, two-story school building with a Level 1 footprint of over 105,000 square feet, and a Level 2 area of over 45,000 square feet. There were no below-grade building levels.
The client was experiencing a variety of challenges, including:
- Uncontrolled existing fill
- Soft to loose clayey soils
- Shallow groundwater
The Geopier GP3 system—an advanced, high-performance solution—was able to more efficiently and effectively reinforce and improve the new, two-story school’s bearing-soil conditions, increase bearing capacity, and meet other design goals, including:
- Eliminate deep foundations and structural slabs
- Enable use of conventional spread footings and slabs-on-grade
- Eliminate mass over-excavation and replacement
- Reliable settlement control
The Geopier GP3 system enables the use of high-capacity spread footings and slab-on-grade support to control settlement and provide reliable support across a wide range of soil conditions, while avoiding the need for conventional deep foundations or costly over-excavation and replacement.
Backed by over 25 years of experience across the Denver metro area, including numerous large school structures, the Geopier team offered the local knowledge and technical expertise to deliver this large-scale project in less time and at a lower cost.
