Perris Valley Line
Metrolink is a commuter rail network operating through Los Angeles, Ventura, San Bernardino, Orange and Riverside Counties. The Perris Valley Line (PVL) was proposed from downtown Riverside to Perris to increase the mobility of the local residents. The 24 mile route runs from RCTC’s downtown Riverside Metrolink station ending in south Perris.
The project required extensive track rehabilitation, constructing new track, constructing three Stations and expansion and system upgrades on the downtown Perris Multimodal Center. Associated construction includes grading and paving, bridges and drainage structures, upgrading 21 grade crossings, and relocating existing and installing new utilities.
Our team was chosen to provide quality assurance (QA) geotechnical and materials testing and hazmat review and confirmation sampling. The project involved multiple agencies oversight including Caltrans, RCTC and local cities.
Our quick response to address unexpected construction related issues such as unstable cut slopes along various segments of the alignment and pumping subgrade soils at South Perris Station was critical to the project schedule. We also provided source inspection services and reviewed the Quality Control Plan by the plant manufacturing the precast panels.
A hazardous materials corridor study and limited environmental soil sampling and testing identified chemicals of concern (COC) along the PVL alignment. As part of the construction management team, our experts prepared a hazardous material handling and disposal plan to coordinate the identification, evaluation, waste characterization, and documentation of the final disposition of chemically-impacted soils generated at the site. A direct communication plan was established to dispatch HAZWOPER trained environmental professionals upon discovery of potential COC. This immediate response limited any delay to the project schedule. Additionally, several senior professionals were included in our project team to prepare fast-track characterization strategies.
Strategies included sample quantities and analytical testing required from trenches and/or potholes excavated by the construction contractor and analyzed for COCs utilizing mobile or fixed-based laboratories. Analytical turn-around times were established to meet the immediate schedule demands of the project, with review and reporting by a registered geologist or engineer. Volume estimates and soil management plans were incorporated quickly into the bid documents to adequately address soil disposition and off-site reuse or disposal.
Client
Riverside County Transportation AuthorityLocation
Riverside County, CACapability
Geotechnical and Geological EngineeringServices
Geotechnical EngineeringGeotechnical Testing
Materials Testing
Special Inspection
Environmental Consulting
Related Projects
Penn Mag Inc. approached Verdantas to provide a geotechnical evaluation for a former industrial site located at the Port of Wilmington. Their goal was business expansion in the form of a new bulk material processing facility.
Penn Mag’s idea was to obtain high quality steel processing waste slag from Japan, ship it to Wilmington Delaware, refine it, and sell it to local ready mic concrete plants. The refined slag can replace virgin cement. The environmental benefits of the project included reuse of a former industrial site reuse of a recycled material in lieu of a completely manufactured product.
We were able to offer additional services, beyond geotechnical engineering, to help Penn Mag complete their project including critical environmental permitting that threatened to stop the project.
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Civil Infrastructure
- Geotechnical
- Civil Engineering
- Structural Engineering
- Construction Review
Environmental Health & Safety
- Air Permitting
- HSCA Compliance
Applied Data & Technology
- Vibration Monitoring
Natural Resources & Environmental Planning
- Floodplain Permitting and FEMA
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Geotechnical and Geological Engineering | Site and Roadway Civil Engineering | Structural Engineering and Architecture
Building a new global waste material reuse business on the Delaware waterfront
Read how Verdantas helped a client build a new global waste material reuse business on the Delaware waterfront
The North County Transit District/Amtrak route is a scenic one as it travels between the surf and coastal bluffs. Beautiful for the rider, unless the train is stopped due to the coastal bluff deterioration, slope failures and landslides that occurred adjacent to the railway, and prevented the trains from passing through.
In April 2001, a 40-foot section of concrete retaining wall collapsed, a wall that had lined the top of the Del Mar Bluffs at 7th Street. The failure, which had been identified in the completed Del Mar Bluffs Geotechnical Study as one of the highest risk areas, consisted of three wall sections approximately 60 feet above the beach.
To keep trains running atop the bluffs, the North County Transit District (NCTD), which owns the tracks, declared an emergency and approved spending $1,050,000 to design both immediate and long-term repairs to the portion that gave way. In addition, funding for mid-term measures, that could cost as much as $8.2 million on other high-risk portions of the bluff, were also approved. These measures are intended to ensure that the Amtrak and Coaster trains that run along the 1.6-mile-long section will be able to do so for the next 20 years.
In response to the emergency, our experts assessed the geological conditions and provided emergency repair alternatives for local agency review. With the selection of a shear-pin stabilization method, a “fast-track” analysis, the design and review period was successfully completed within 30 days. Construction of the stabilization system, twelve 60-foot-deep shear pins with tie-backs, was then successfully completed within 45 days.
Prior to this emergency, our geotechnical report had informed the NCTD that saturation from groundwater is/was the biggest problem facing Del Mar’s bluffs. The report predicts that, without reinforcing measures along at least half of their length, the bluffs will erode another 12 feet within the next 20 years, making them even more fragile. Specifically, our report had identified the area (at 7th Street) that failed as a high-risk zone.
The railroad tracks were first built along the bluffs in 1910. Because of population growth, runoff from irrigation has increased tremendously, saturating Del Mar’s bluffs with groundwater and causing them to erode faster than they otherwise would. (Leighton’s study showed that normal rainfall in the San Diego County would dump about 10 inches on Del Mar Bluffs, but with the increased runoff, water reaching the bluffs each year is equivalent to between 100 and 200 inches of rain.)
Improvements constructed included additional shear pins, soil cement improvements, sea walls at the base of the bluffs, reinforcing the bluffs, and improving surface and sub-surface drainage, all with site aesthetics as a key element.
The selected stabilization method included additional shear pins connected at the top by a reinforced grade beam with tie backs. Where improvements are exposed they have been boulder-scaped to match the adjacent bluffs. Site stabilization also included the installation of a deep cut off subdrain which was outletted by boring through the bluff to the beach below and exiting through a boulder-scaped outlet.
Leighton has continued to provide geotechnical services since that first report, including the Thanksgiving 2019 failure.
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Geotechnical and Geological Engineering
Del Mar Bluffs
Read how geotechnical services kept the North County Transit District/Amtrak scenic route safe for riders.