Award-Winning Emergency Repair with Helical Piles

A major emergency repair was required in north Tallahassee, Florida, after severe erosion compromised an existing retaining wall and roadway. Stormwater drainage had washed out the supporting soils, leaving the road unsafe and at risk of collapse.

To quickly stabilize the site and restore safe travel, engineers at Kever McKee Engineering partnered with helical pile installer Camsyn Foundations to design a long-term helical pile foundation solution that could be executed on an accelerated schedule.

Engineering Approach

Soil borings in the sandy subsurface extended to 60 feet, but five deeper probes—installed to 80 feet using helical piles matching the production pile configurations—helped engineers refine the design. Engineers at Kever McKee used Chance helical capacity design software HeliCAP® to determine the appropriate pile loads and configurations required to stabilize the eroded area.

Camsyn Foundations worked with Foundation Technologies, Inc., the Chance Distributor for the southeast and southwest United States. With over 120,000 square feet of warehouse space, Foundation Technologies ensured that the right products and tools were available at the jobsite, keeping the project on schedule and within budget. The team took advantage of the wide variety of Chance products for this complex repair.

Many Products for a Complete Solution

A range of Chance helical systems was deployed to meet varying soil conditions and load requirements across the site.

Combination or Combo Piles utilize a square shaft lead section which transitions to pipe shaft extension sections. Chance SS175 lead sections with 8/10/12” helices were followed by a transition coupler and RS3500 plain extensions to secure the toe of the existing footing. Direct Jack (DJ) brackets were used to transfer the load from the footing to the piles. A combo pile was chosen because the square shaft better penetrates the densified sand near the surface, while the pipe shaft better resists bucking that may occur in loose/soft soils with an ASTM D1586 blow count Nspt < 4.

To support compression loads of the new concrete header being formed and poured, SS175 Helical Pulldown® Micropiles were utilized. Displacement plates on the pile create a void around the pile shaft as it is installed. Grout is gravity-fed during installation, filling the void, stiffening the pile and providing additional capacity and corrosion protection. Chance new construction caps were used to support the load of the header.

Finally, SS175 anchors were installed at a batter to support lateral tension loads of the new concrete header being formed and poured for the retaining wall.

The availability of different pile types–combo piles, micropiles, tiebacks, and square shaft piles– and terminations, allowed the team to utilize the best solution for each soil type and load requirement in the project.

Helical Pile Installation

To install the piles, Camsyn Foundations used a Caterpillar 308 Mini Excavator with a Digga 13K ALS anchor drive head. A Chance digital torque indicator provided real-time torque monitoring and automatically transmitted logs to the field team. Average installation torque across the project was 10,500 ft-lb.

Since torque is measured during installation, the crew could adapt to any unexpected soil conditions immediately—an important advantage for emergency repairs.

Ultimate capacities were 60 kip for the underpinning done with Combo Piles, 130 kip for the Helical Pulldown Micropiles supporting the new concrete header, and 90 kip for the battered tension anchors.

Why Helical Piles Were the Right Choice

Helical piles offered several advantages for this emergency repair:

• Ideal for stabilization of poor soils

• Fast installation to meet aggressive timelines

• Modular components, allowing transport and installation in areas with limited access

• No vibration, protecting the already-damaged infrastructure

• Small equipment footprint, reducing environmental disturbance

Project Completion and Recognition

In total, 36 lead sections and over 400 extensions were installed to complete the project. The Camsyn Foundation team completed the job in two 3-day phases with the concrete pour in between —just six days of onsite work.

This project was awarded Project of the Year 2025 (disaster and emergency projects under two million dollars) from the Florida Chapter of the American Public Works Association.

Camsyn Foundations LLC was formed in May of 2024 by Jordan Clark and Nathan Giles. With eight years of prior experience in the deep foundation industry and ten years of experience in heavy civil and structural steel industry, we hit the ground running and taking on large scale projects with positive results in a short amount of time. Serving the entire state of Florida, parts of Georgia, Alabama, Louisiana and Mississippi.