Four Seasons Resort, Jackson Hole, Wyoming
The project located at the Four Seasons Resort in Jackson Hole Wyoming consisted of reduction of lateral forces on a retaining wall system. The contractor wanted to erect the exterior walls of the structure prior to completing the interior supports. Enormous and costly efforts would have to be done in order to support the walls against the estimated lateral pressures exerted by the soil against the exterior walls. A solution was to place a slurry fill of light weight concrete against the walls in four-foot lifts. This worked as long as there was an abundant supply of the lightweight concrete mixture. Unfortunately there was a supply problem and that is why EPS was brought in as a design alternative. The cost of EPS was lower than the cost of the Lightweight Slurry fill. It was an attractive alternative for the contractor. Unfortunately the Architect was not familiar with the product and required massive amounts of data supporting the Designing Engineers recommendations. Support was given by the Contractor and the Geotechnical Engineers for the project. Approvals were given by all the supporting staff but the ability to have cost savings by a quick construction method were diminished by the time frame required to educate the Architect.
Fills in the Four Seasons Resort project
Lessons learned? If EPS is an alternative for your project, educate the staff including the Client, and any Client representatives in the beginning. For this type of industry to flourish education is the key. All the problems the contractor experienced in the approval process could have been eliminated by allowing AES to hold informational meetings where all the questions could have been answered quickly and efficiently. If this was done EPS could have been used more efficiently expediting the construction process and saving the contractor more in both time and money.