OWNER:
Louisiana-Pacific
Tacoma, Washington

ENGINEER:
CH2M Hill
Portland, Oregon

The owner needed to expand its existing log sort yard to provide for additional storage and production at its Tacoma, Washington Mill. To efficiently accommodate the proposed expansion area, it was decided to locate the yard over an existing inactive sludge waste and debris containment area. Biaxial geogrids were used to stabilize and reinforce the log sort yard base. The geogrids were instrumental in the elimination of potential localized shear failures and deeper-seated bearing capacity failures. The final sub-base and base system consisted of roller compacted dry concrete, leveling sand course, biaxial geogrid, and crushed ballast. A factor of safety against failure of 1.3 was achieved with a machine operating loading in excess of 130,000 pounds.