

OWNER:
Islander Motel,LLC
PROJECT ENGINEER:
McNeil Carroll Engineering, Inc.
17800 Panama City Beach Parkway
Panama City Beach, FL 32413
DESIGN/CONSTRUCT
CONTRACTOR:
Synergy Earth Systems, LLC.
26240 Equity Drive
Daphne, AL 36526
GENERAL CONTRACTOR:
G.R. Harvill, Inc.
P.O. Box 9131
Mobile, AL 36691
The site for the LaQuinta Inn in Panama City Beach was located along Thomas Drive across from the Naval Base. The project site required a retaining wall along the South side of the property. The original drawings called for a concrete cast-in-place (CIP) retaining wall. The CIP design called for the stem of the wall to be a minimum of 1 foot thick. The footer was 1' 9" thick and 11' 6" wide a the highest point (14 feet). The cost to build a wall like this was extremely high and the owner and general contractor were inclined to look for a more cost-effective solution.
The general contractor,
G.R. Harvill, Inc. contacted Synergy Earth Systems, LLC (SES) to find out
if there was an economical alternative to the CIP wall designed for this project.
SES determined that the site would be able to utilize a segmental retaining
wall with geogrid reinforcement in lieu of the CIP wall which would reduce
the cost by almost 50% or more. SES also worked in conjunction with the Project
Engineer to minimize the amount of retaining wall comprised of segmental retaining
wall units and geogrid reinforcement. The efforts by SES resulted in a cost-effective
solution for the general contractor and owner. Construction of this project
began in July 2005 and was successfully completed in early August 2005.
.