HealtSouth Corporate Headquarters


Birmingham, Alabama

The proposed HealthSouth project site in Birmingham, Alabama was under-lain by abandoned coal mines. The presence of these coal mines posed a signifi cant technical challenge to the construction of deep foundations that had to penetrate voids left by the mining operations. The General Contractor, Brasfi eld & Gorrie, L.L.C., turned to BAUER Foundation Corporation to develop and implement means and me-thods to address these challenges. Specifi c challenges included large voids up to 20 feet (6 m) below the top of rock and rock strengths of 20,000 - 25,000 PSI. Beginning in August 2016, Bauer executed a total of 126 shafts of varying diameters with depths up to 125 feet (38 m). In addition, Bauer also drilled and imaged 125 probe holes with a diameter of 6 inch (152 mm). Permanent, full depth casing was installed on all but a few of the drilled shafts to avoid loss of concrete in the voids and specialized tooling was utilized to drill and excavate the hard sandstone. Bauer also recommended and implemented an imaging program that allowed the geotechnical engineer to inspect the excavations without placing a person in the open excavation, a signifi cant safety concern for the project.