To continue our celebration of this year’s DiscoverE EWeek campaign, we’re highlighting how our engineers are making a difference in the world around us by featuring our favorite projects. If you missed our post interviewing a few of our engineers or our post on some of our recent mentoring opportunities, check those out now!
We asked everyone around our 35 offices to tell us which Pennoni projects were their favorites, find out our picks below!
1) Citizens Bank Park, Philadelphia PA
The Philadelphia Phillies began their 2004 season in a new home, Citizens Bank Park. The $350 million stadium is a 1 million-sf facility with a natural grass and dirt playing field and seating for nearly 44,000 spectators. We worked directly with the Phillies and architect EwingCole on the facility at the former warehouse site at 11th Street and Pattison Avenue. Initial services included site boundary, and topographic and utilities surveys for the 100-acre site north of Pattison Avenue. We are providing the Phillies and EwingCole with ongoing support through current projects as well.
2) Vine Expressway (I-676), Philadelphia PA
The reconstruction of seven structurally deficient bridges over I-676 (The Vine Expressway) in Philadelphia, PA, was part of Pennsylvania Department of Transportation District 6-0’s (PennDOT) $78-million investment along the heavily traveled I-676. The seven existing bridges, from 22nd Street to 18th Street, consisted of five vehicular bridges and two wide pedestrian bridges, all with a substandard vertical clearance that required improvement during design. All the existing bridge superstructures, which were two-span, non-composite, prestressed concrete adjacent box beam, were replaced with single-span composite steel girder superstructures, while the existing center piers were removed, and the existing reinforced concrete abutments were repaired, retrofitted and reused. Pennoni and our six design sub-consultants completed the final design under an accelerated schedule and improved vehicular and pedestrian safety as well as created new beautiful public park space and amenities for all to enjoy.
3) Camden Waterfront Redevelopment, Camden NJ
Camden Waterfront is undergoing a multi-phased, mixed-use redevelopment. The site consists of multiple office towers, luxury apartments, a hotel, a waterfront park including the former RCA pier, and more. There will be approximately 1.44 million-sf of office space; 188 residential units; a 180-room hotel; and approximately 17,557-sf of retail space. The redevelopment provides significant improvements through the implementation of sustainable design methods to failing utility infrastructure, roadways and intersections to improve vehicle and pedestrian access and circulation, and to sanitary and storm sewer infrastructure to reduce existing flooding conditions.
4) Opal Sands Clearwater, FL
Opal Sands Resort is a 17-story, 380,000-sf premier hotel. The project had a few challenges to overcome, including exposure to Florida’s high hurricane wind loads, construction in multiple flood zones, and designing a concrete building on a site with loose beach sands. A wind tunnel test was of the utmost importance as it resulted in overall reduced costs as well as a more accurate design, including adjustments made around the base of the building where pedestrians would be affected. Any wall that is not a shear wall, stair, or elevator wall was designed to withstand wind forces but must fail or break-away under storm-driven wave action, so the two lower floors of the building are open parking. Pennoni provided structural design, construction administration and threshold inspections.
5) National Constitution Center, Philadelphia PA
The National Constitution Center hosts interactive exhibits and constitutional conversations and inspires active citizenship by celebrating the American constitutional tradition. Pennoni was retained to provide quality assurance inspection and testing services which included the field and laboratory testing of soils and cast-in-place concrete, verification of reinforcing steel placement, testing and inspection during structural steel erection, field and laboratory testing of spray applied fire proofing, floor flatness and levelness testing, structural steel fabrication inspection and testing, and monitoring of the roofing installation.