Location
Arlington, Virginia
Date
14 Aug 2008, 7:00 pm - 8:30 pm
Abstract
As the western end of the National Mall in Washington, DC was made by filling in portions of the Potomac River, memorials and monuments have required deep foundations. The site history including stream channels, canals, and materials used in filling various areas has had a large impact on the development of the Mall. Variations in geologic conditions along the Mall have affected the types of foundations used. One of the earliest structures, the Washington Monument, was sited to account for problem soils. Its foundation was underpinned during construction to compensate for low-strength soils. Shallow-founded portions of the Lincoln Memorial, the Reflecting Pool, and the Jefferson Memorial have experienced settlements requiring repair. Foundations for the Korean, Vietnam, and World War II Memorials were designed as deep systems due to the presence of compressible deposits at their respective sites and in the case of the World War II Memorial the presence of a flood zone. The US Capitol is founded at a higher elevation on spread footings bearing on compact Pleistocene terrace deposits. This paper will the present the types of foundations used for memorials and monuments, the performance of the systems, and the resulting remedial actions where required.
Department(s)
Civil, Architectural and Environmental Engineering
Meeting Name
6th Conference of the International Conference on Case Histories in Geotechnical Engineering
Publisher
Missouri University of Science and Technology
Document Version
Final Version
Rights
© 2008 Missouri University of Science and Technology, 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
Christie, Douglas W., "Foundations for Memorials and Monuments on the National Mall" (2008). International Conference on Case Histories in Geotechnical Engineering. 4.
https://scholarsmine.mst.edu/icchge/6icchge/session08/4
Foundations for Memorials and Monuments on the National Mall
Arlington, Virginia
As the western end of the National Mall in Washington, DC was made by filling in portions of the Potomac River, memorials and monuments have required deep foundations. The site history including stream channels, canals, and materials used in filling various areas has had a large impact on the development of the Mall. Variations in geologic conditions along the Mall have affected the types of foundations used. One of the earliest structures, the Washington Monument, was sited to account for problem soils. Its foundation was underpinned during construction to compensate for low-strength soils. Shallow-founded portions of the Lincoln Memorial, the Reflecting Pool, and the Jefferson Memorial have experienced settlements requiring repair. Foundations for the Korean, Vietnam, and World War II Memorials were designed as deep systems due to the presence of compressible deposits at their respective sites and in the case of the World War II Memorial the presence of a flood zone. The US Capitol is founded at a higher elevation on spread footings bearing on compact Pleistocene terrace deposits. This paper will the present the types of foundations used for memorials and monuments, the performance of the systems, and the resulting remedial actions where required.
