Slope Stabilization Vital to Roads and American Infrastructure

In the news these days, there’s a lot of political talk about our cyber infrastructure, but we can never forget the importance of keeping up our physical infrastructure as well, particularly when it comes to slope stabilization and roadways. At Thorcon Shotcrete and Shoring, we are dedicated to the safety of our team members and those in the communities we serve who travel on the infrastructure we help build, shore and repair. From our headquarters in Littleton, Colorado, we provide shoring services to Denver, the whole of Colorado and states in the surrounding region. Infrastructure repair, though, is an issue which spans the whole nation.

According to a paper by the National Cooperative Highway Research Program, about three-quarters of all roads in the United States are low-volume, and are only repaired by an estimated 35,000 local agencies across the country. This is significant because we outrank all other countries in terms of sheer amount of reported roadway—with over four million miles of paved and unpaved road—but the majority of the roads need or receive little attention due to little use. As the research program points out, creators of these low-use roads “often omit surface slope protection,” since the roads won’t see a lot of traffic. Even one road collapse due to poor slope stabilization, though, can be a safety hazard, so best practice is to inspect and repair roadworks, as well as to build new roads with cost-effective slope stabilization solutions in mind.

At Thorcon Shotcrete and Shoring, our engineers provide custom solutions for every project. We can repair existing infrastructure, implement slope erosion control on new building sites, and provide cost-effective stabilization solutions to fit any budget or need. Get in touch with us today to ensure that your local roads and infrastructure are not in danger of being a safety hazard in your community.

Geotechnical Engineering Investigation Begins on European Tunnel Project

The Channel Tunnel has been making headlines this week, with thousands of migrants attempting to use it to make their way illegally into the UK, but it isn’t the only immersed European tunnel to make the news in July. This month, a new project is continuing which will see an immersed tunnel built from Germany to Denmark under the Baltic sea. According to Maritime Professional, the tunnel will become part of the “Scandinavian-Mediterranean corridor,” and, like any good tunnel project, it kicked off this month with a geotechnical engineering company performing cone penetration testing as part of a preliminary investigation on the project. At Thorcon Shotcrete and Shoring here in Littleton, Colorado, we are always happy to see good geotechnical work get into the news, especially when the commitment of other companies so matches our own.

Fugro, the geotechnical company who performed the investigation, was praised for providing a “tailored technical solution and cost-effective execution.” We pride ourselves on providing the same perks to our clients throughout Colorado and states in the surrounding region. Our team of civil engineers create custom solutions for all projects and our team implements those solutions with time, budget and—most importantly—safety as top considerations. Whether we are involved with large-scale infrastructure shoring projects, installing architectural shotcrete in parking lots, or devising slope stabilization solutions using the latest techniques, our team always provides custom, quality work.

Get in touch with us today and you’ll be working with a company who has just as good a reputation with our clients as Fugro now has with the Scandinavian region. We implement geotechnical projects both near and far from our home outside Denver, and each gets the detail-oriented attention which keeps workers, passengers, pedestrians and budgets safe.

Thorcon’s Shotcrete Solution at Fountain, CO’s New Wal-Mart

At Thorcon Shotcrete and Shoring, we are proud to unveil footage of a fresh, new shotcrete project, which was completed earlier this month. We installed a beautiful new shotcrete wall for the parking lot at the new Wal-Mart supercenter and Sam’s Club, coming soon to Fountain, Colorado. As The Gazette reported earlier in the summer, the new construction is part of “Wal-Mart’s latest expansion in the Pikes Peak region.” We here at Thorcon are proud to be a part of the process, and to provide our neighbors in Fountain with quality shotcrete solutions.

From our headquarters in Littleton, Colorado (just outside Denver), we service all of Colorado with our geotechnical services, as well as other states in the surrounding region. Whether shotcrete is an unseen part of a shoring solution, or a visible piece of an architectural vision, we provide the best team and the best service to ensure safety and customer satisfaction. Our engineers and technicians work to provide custom solutions for all of our clients so we can be sure we meet both stability and aesthetic requirements. For more examples of our sculpted shotcrete projects and other engineering solutions, check out our digital gallery.

To get a closer look at our work in Fountain, though, look no further than the video posted here, where you’ll be able to see a close-up view of our quality work and hear a short description of the project. To get your own shotcrete and shoring project done to your specifications, get in touch with us today!

Gunite Canal Repairs Make Childhood Memories

Normally, if gunite hits the news, it’s in reference to large houses up for sale or recently built which boast fancy gunite pools. While interesting shotcrete projects have gotten our attention before here at Thorcon Shotcrete and Shoring (like in the case of the Chauvet cave recreation or the new explosion-resistant formula), most of those stories focus on the use of shotcrete, specifically, while gunite has been left out of the limelight. A touching story came to our attention recently, though, about life in the early days of Gilbert, Arizona, which features an annual gunite repair job!

According to Dale Hallock (former mayor of Gilbert who wrote the piece for The Arizona Republic), back in the 1940s the pump houses along the Salt River Project canals in Gilbert were crucial to the fishing opportunities for local kids. Once every year, the pumps would be turned off so that the canals could have a chance to dry up for repairs. Gunite contractors from back in the day would inspect the canals for cracks and repair them using early gunite systems. While the canal banks were being worked on, the children of the community were provided a “wonderful time of opportunity” to catch big catfish with their hands! The fish would get stuck in the remaining pools of water in the otherwise dry canals, and the kids would haul them away in gunnysacks for their mothers to cook up for dinner. Hallock describes these events as very fond memories of his childhood and he reminds residents of the important roles that the pump houses played in both canal repairs and catfish catching!

Here at Thorcon Shotcrete and Shoring, we are proud to provide gunite and shotcrete repair and building solutions to our clients in Colorado and states in the surrounding region from our headquarters in Littleton (outside Denver). Whether or not any of our projects will contribute to childhood memories, we can’t say, but we can promise that our designs and implementation will contribute to lasting repairs and strong, safe infrastructure. Our team is dedicated to custom solutions, client satisfaction and the highest safety standards. Contact us today to get started on your gunite project!

Micropiles Key to Winter Mountain Railroad Safety

Summer is often the key season for preparing infrastructure for the fall and winter months ahead. As the writers at Railway Age point out, the winters can be particularly harsh on railroads, especially the ones running through the Rocky Mountains. Winter not only brings heavy weather, but also the rush of traffic from transporting holiday goods around the country, as well as the grain trains bringing food to and from seasonal storage. With the future in mind, railways including Union Pacific and BNSF are shoring up and preparing for the long haul of winter, and they’re taking advantage of the mid-summer months to complete a variety of projects, including micropiling for increased avalanche safety. At Thorcon Shotcrete and Shoring, we’re always interested when geotechnical engineering projects hit the news, and since this story concerns railroads in the Rockies, near our headquarters in Littleton, Colorado, it particularly caught our attention.

From our location near Denver, we get involved in all manner of shotcrete, shoring and stabilization projects throughout the summer, taking advantage of the good weather to make sure that infrastructure holds through the freezes and frosts of winter. It’s no surprise that other companies take advantage of the same opportunity. Railway Age reports that BNSF invests around $40,000 a year in maintenance on its snowsheds alone—some of which were originally built around a hundred years ago—to protect its railway from avalanches in the mountains. They use large micropiles to stabilize the footings of those snowsheds, which are vital to keeping the trains running through the winter, especially considering “more than a dozen avalanche chutes take direct aim at BNSF’s doubletracked main line.”

Whether you need micropile solutions for stabilization in the mountains or as part of a construction solution on flatter ground, our team of engineers at Thorcon Shotcrete and Shoring will devise a custom solution to fit your needs, time constraints and budget. Get started today and contact us with your project details!

Safety-Focused Slope Stabilization For Mining Operations

When it comes to mines, miners and geotechnical workers in Colorado and the surrounding region, Thorcon Shotcrete and Shoring not only has the expertise to develop sound slope stabilization strategies, but also to keep safety as a top priority. We work on mining sites within our service area from our headquarters in Littleton, near Denver, Colorado, and as with all of our services, we work with the satisfaction of the client and the safety of all workers in mind.

The stability of rock slopes are vital to extraction operations, as with strip mines and heap leaching, but the mines, themselves, are not the only slopes which need erosion control and engineering. The entire mining operation needs to be considered, including waste embankments and tailings dams. For efficiency and safety, all parts need to be designed and built for optimum stabilization.

At Thorcon Shotcrete and Shoring, we provide custom slope stability engineering, so our team of geotechnical engineers will design solutions around a clients’ particular needs to ensure that every plan is created for efficiency and satisfaction. We operate under many safety guidelines, including OSHA and MSHA, which specifically regulates mine and miner safety. Our crews are continually trained in new standards and best practices to ensure optimum project execution. Also, each member of our team is empowered as a Safety Director, so that they can take the authority they need to address potential safety problems in real time.

Our commitment when it comes to slope stabilization on mining sites is not just to quality, but to each worker involved with the project. Collapses can be costly in health, life, money and time, so our team works to provide custom, safe solutions which control slope erosion, provide stability and keep everyone from danger. Get in touch with us today for your custom engineering solution.

Unfavorable Soil Conditions For Soil Nailing

Last month, we covered some details about the most favorable soil conditions for the use of soil nailing. Today, we’re looking at unfavorable conditions in which we would not advise soil nails. At Thorcon Shotcrete and Shoring, our team of engineers reviews each project to ensure that the best method of shoring or slope stabilization is used based on the currents conditions. Located near Denver in Littleton, Colorado, we serve each of our clients here and in the surrounding region with custom solutions which ensure lasting and safe results.

In the past, we’ve reviewed how cost effective soil nailing can be as a slope stabilization solution, however if you are dealing with the following soil conditions, soil nailing is not ideal, so we would recommend an alternative strategy:

  • Water-infiltrated loess: While dry loess can provide suitable conditions for soil nailing, if water is a threat then the structure could collapse, which would not be an economic stabilization option.
  • Cohesionless soils: In soils which are poorly graded and particularly dry, it is difficult to make the appropriate cuts. Soils with some natural cohesion are preferable.
  • Organic soils: Because organic soils typically don’t exhibit much bond strength, longer nails must be used which can diminish the cost-efficiency of the project. Some organic soils can receive soil nailing and still save money, though, so our engineers will determine whether soil nailing is the best option in cases with organic soil.
  • High groundwater situations: When water threatens to interfere, it disrupts the stabilization of the soil and can cause the nail holes to collapse. Also, too much groundwater can hinder the initial application of the soil nails.
  • Weathered rock exhibiting karst or other weakness planes: Certain fractures and faults can be problematic to the stability of the soil nail holes and can also make the installation process difficult. Due to the ongoing change in karst areas, especially, soil nailing is not an economic option.

Other soil types can cause a problem as well, such as highly corrosive soils, which can threaten the longevity of the nails; fine-grained soils, which also exhibit little cohesion and bond strength; and soils which contain a lot of cobbles and boulders, which can cause problems in the initial drilling. While in many of these cases, soil nailing is possible, it often isn’t the best solution for your budget, time and satisfaction. At Thorcon Shotcrete and Shoring, we complete each job with the custom needs of the client in mind and with a focus on safety. Contact us today to get started.

A Spotlight on our Geotechnical Engineering Installation Services

As a civil engineering company providing a broad variety of geotechnical services, we at Thorcon Shotcrete and Shoring try to update our site visitors with new information about our services whenever possible. With this goal in mind, we’re highlighting a few more of our geotechnical services this week. We provide the following installation solutions to clients in Colorado and the surrounding region from our headquarters in Littleton (near Denver). As with all of our services, our team of engineers will create a custom installation plan for your project’s needs.

  •  Piezometer Installation – We install piezometers to measure and observe liquid pressure at specific points. Vital for monitoring groundwater in certain areas, we can help you determine a plan for installation and maintenance. Our geotechnical engineers can also diagnose any problems detected by the piezometers.
  •  Inclinometer Installation – Inclinometers are very useful when engaging in ongoing slope control and analysis. We not only install inclinometers, but our engineers can also help provide diagnoses and implement solutions for slope correction efforts.
  •  Grouting Installation – To improve the stabilization in certain surfaces, we can inject grouting material into porous spaces. Whether required for water control, stabilization or to strengthen a structure, our engineers can design a custom grouting solution to meet the demands of your project.

Contact us today to get started on your custom geotechnical project, and look into our other services, such as shotcrete, gunite and our other stabilization services. Our team at Thorcon Shotcrete and Shoring always puts safety and the client first to provide custom projects which protect workers, time-frames and budgets!

New and Existing Trends for Gunite Pools

Gunite is one of the most popular materials for pool installation nationwide. Because of the flexibility in design that gunite provides, shotcrete and gunite contractors can use a wet or dry process to install residential or commercial pools efficiently and easily. At Thorcon Shotcrete and Shoring, gunite pool installation is a part of our long list of shotcrete and gunite services. Based outside of Denver, Colorado in Littleton, we provide customer-oriented, safety-focused contracting services to Colorado and states in the surrounding region.

Gunite installation isn’t the only pool trend hitting the nation, though. As reported earlier this week by newspapers from Washington to Texas, there’s a new pool cleaning trend that’s becoming increasingly prevalent: saltwater systems. These systems can be implemented in a brand new gunite pool, or used to upgrade an existing pool. Why saltwater? The Tribune News Service, who broke the article, provides several reasons.

  1. Saltwater cleaning systems don’t produce the typical chlorine smell.
  2. The salt is easier on your skin than the chemicals in a traditional chlorine system.
  3. Maintaining chlorine pools is more expensive, so saltwater systems can save hundreds of dollars annually.
  4. Salt doesn’t bleach swimsuits.
  5. There is less need for pool shock with a saltwater system.

It seems to us that saltwater systems and gunite concrete installation go hand-in-hand, since both are safer, more efficient and more economic options for pool installation and maintenance. So when it comes time to install a pool in your home or business, consider going with gunite installation from Thorcon Shotcrete and Shoring, and when you’re deciding what pool system to go with, keep in mind the maintenance and cost benefits that come with saltwater pool systems. For a custom-designed gunite pool solution, contact Thorcon today and get started!