WJE PROJECTS

Forest Road Snowcat Bypass

 
CLIENT
Vail Resorts Development Company
LOCATION
Vail, CO

Design Review and Construction Observation

Michael W. West & Associates, Inc. (MWWAI)—now joined with WJE—was asked to provide a value engineering review and final design of the retaining walls for the Forest Road Snowcat Bypass project in Vail, Colorado.


BACKGROUND

The final retaining wall design for the Forest Road Snowcat Bypass consisted of a soil nail retaining wall on the cut side and MSE retaining walls on the fill side of the road. The as-constructed soil nail and MSE walls were each approximately 600 linear feet (183 m) long, each with maximum heights of about 16 feet (4.9 m).

SOLUTION

MWWAI provided full-time construction observation during installation of the soil nail wall. Responsibilities included verification that ground conditions were consistent with design parameters, verification that soil nail installation was consistent with design recommendations, and providing guidance and carrying out design changes due to actual field conditions. MWWAI also provided part-time observation during the MSE wall construction to verify that ground conditions and construction were in accordance with the design plans and specifications.

MWWAI delivered a Construction Quality Assurance Report to the client that included daily field notes and soil nail installation logs. MWWAI also collected, evaluated, and presented all testing information from the various subcontractors—such as monitoring data of the soil nail wall, soil nail verification and proof test results, tie wire spike pullout test results, and materials testing data.