The Greater Fairbanks Community Hospital Foundation constructed a new state-of-the-art Surgery Center to provide this region with access to advanced medical care. As an essential facility, the Surgery Center addition must remain functional following any earthquake. However, the soil beneath the building's foundations consisted of liquefiable, loose gravel and sand, which would cause structurally damaging settlement during a seismic event. The design team was challenged to develop a solution that would allow the existing hospital to remain fully operational during construction, as well as to mitigate deep liquefaction so the new Surgery Center would be operational during and after an earthquake.

Shannon & Wilson provided geotechnical design recommendations and construction support to address the project's geotechnical challenges. The design team's solution: mitigate liquefaction using a combination of ground improvement methods that could be performed adjacent to the existing hospital without impacting patient care or damaging the structure. Shannon & Wilson provided a cost-efficient design by recommending multiple ground improvement methods and maximizing the area where we could use a less expensive ground improvement method. We designed a secant pile wall to isolate the ground improvement zone and structurally separate the new and existing structures, allowing the Surgery Center to be constructed adjacent to the existing building without requiring seismic upgrades to the existing building.