The Los Angeles County Department of Public Works (LADPW) was formed in 1985 is responsible for delivering regional public services that improve the quality of life for more than 10 million people in Los Angeles County. LADPW recently broke ground on this three-story modular building that will cater to pediatrics, autism wellness, and family justice. The ground floor pediatric facility will replace trailers that currently service this community center, which sees over 5,000 referrals annually. The second floor will house an autism wellness center, offering medical and behavioral health services for special needs individuals. The third floor will house multiple agencies addressing the needs of individuals affected by domestic and family violence.
Twining performed a geotechnical investigation and proposed recommendations for construction. We performed field exploration consisting of four 8-inch-diameter exploratory borings and two percolation tests. The borings were advanced to depths ranging between approximately 31.5 feet and 51.5 feet below the existing grades. The percolation tests were performed at approximate depths of 5 feet bgs. Additionally, we performed laboratory testing on selected samples obtained from the boring in order to aid in the soil classification and to evaluate the engineering properties of the foundation soils. Our report was reviewed and approved by LADPW with only relatively minor comments that were quickly addressed and resubmitted.
Twining is currently serving as Geotechnical Engineer of Record during construction. The bulk of grading has been completed and documentation of grading submitted to LADPW. Challenges during grading included soft over-excavation bottoms, which were anticipated in the design geotechnical report. The solution to those challenges were offered by Twining’s geotechnical engineer which were accepted and approved by LADPW without delay. Twining is also providing inspection of reinforcing steel and concrete placement inspection, testing of concrete samples, non-destructive testing, inspection of masonry and grout placement, and engineering review and project supervision for the construction of this important County facility.