SPIRIT COMMUNICATIONS PARK
Columbia, South Carolina
At the center of the 165-acre Bull Street redevelopment project is a new $37 million minor league baseball stadium called Spirit Communications Park, serving as the anchor of the redevelopment. Working for the City of Columbia, FME provided geotechnical services for the 540,000-square-foot baseball stadium, to include foundation recommendations, retaining and basement wall design recommendations, and pavement recommendations.
FME’s subsurface exploration identified prevailing groundwater elevations at or near the proposed finished field elevation. This issue could have required the facility to be redesigned, resulting in major budget overruns. To mitigate the prevailing groundwater elevation, FME worked closely with the City, Construction Manager, and Architect to design a groundwater collection system that lowered the groundwater elevation in the proximity of the facility. This innovative approach was instrumental in the project being completed on time and within budget. FME also performed a site-specific seismic ground motion response spectrum analysis to refine the seismic site classification from a Category “D” to a Category “C,” which lead to significant savings in construction costs.
During early site grading and foundation construction, FME provided inspection and on-site testing of backfill soils, structural fill soils, and concrete. FME also conducted construction materials testing in our AASHTO-accredited laboratory.
PROJECT OWNER
City of Columbia
PROJECT COST
$37 million
SERVICES PROVIDED
- Subsurface Exploration
- Materials Laboratory Testing
- Foundation Analysis and Design
- Retaining Wall Analysis and Design
- Pavement Analysis and Design
- Seismic Analysis
- Construction Inspection and Testing
