Alternative Title
Paper No. 1.27
Location
St. Louis, Missouri
Date
10 Mar 1998, 9:00 am - 12:00 pm
Abstract
Benaroya Hall, the new home of the Seattle Symphony, is located directly over an old railroad tunnel in downtown Seattle. The railroad tunnel was hand excavated in the early 1900s; the tunnel excavation caused considerable settlement of the buildings and streets above. The tunneling disturbance and subsequent rotting of timber supports resulted in numerous voids in the vicinity of the tunnel. Excavation for the Benaroya Hall removed up to 55 feet of soil overburden and came to within 12 feet of the tunnel crown. The foundations for the symphony hall were required to protect the railroad tunnel from carrying symphony hall building loads as well as preventing the hall from settling because of tunnel void collapse. A combination of drilled shafts and a foundation mat was used to support the symphony hall in the vicinity of the tunnel. A series of tape extensometers and optical surveys within the tunnel confirmed the success of the combination foundation system.
Department(s)
Civil, Architectural and Environmental Engineering
Meeting Name
4th Conference of the International Conference on Case Histories in Geotechnical Engineering
Publisher
University of Missouri--Rolla
Document Version
Final Version
Rights
© 1998 University of Missouri--Rolla, All rights reserved.
Creative Commons Licensing
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 4.0 License.
Document Type
Article - Conference proceedings
File Type
text
Language
English
Recommended Citation
Mitchell, Carole L. B., "Design and Construction of the Seattle Symphony's Benaroya Hall Above an Old Railroad Tunnel" (1998). International Conference on Case Histories in Geotechnical Engineering. 44.
https://scholarsmine.mst.edu/icchge/4icchge/4icchge-session01/44
Design and Construction of the Seattle Symphony's Benaroya Hall Above an Old Railroad Tunnel
St. Louis, Missouri
Benaroya Hall, the new home of the Seattle Symphony, is located directly over an old railroad tunnel in downtown Seattle. The railroad tunnel was hand excavated in the early 1900s; the tunnel excavation caused considerable settlement of the buildings and streets above. The tunneling disturbance and subsequent rotting of timber supports resulted in numerous voids in the vicinity of the tunnel. Excavation for the Benaroya Hall removed up to 55 feet of soil overburden and came to within 12 feet of the tunnel crown. The foundations for the symphony hall were required to protect the railroad tunnel from carrying symphony hall building loads as well as preventing the hall from settling because of tunnel void collapse. A combination of drilled shafts and a foundation mat was used to support the symphony hall in the vicinity of the tunnel. A series of tape extensometers and optical surveys within the tunnel confirmed the success of the combination foundation system.
