Project:
Puente Hills Materials Recovery Facility
Overview
The Puente Hills Materials Recovery Facility (MRF) is located in the City of Whittier, next to the Puente Hills Landfill. The purpose of the Puente Hills MRF is to provide waste diversion and publicly-owned transfer capacity for Los Angeles County. The facility is permitted to accept 4,400 tons per day and 24,000 tons per week of municipal solid waste. The project is located on approximately 25 acres and is comprised of the processing building, administrative offices, scales, parking, and maintenance areas.
Location:
Los Angeles County
Owner / Client:
Los Angeles County Sanitation Districts
Performance Period:
2004-2016
Services:
- Biosolids Management/Composting Facilities
Scope of Services Provided by AES
AES performed site characterization for a 215,000 sq. ft. MRF structure located at the base of a steep hillside underlain by landslide deposits, and materials that are potentially liquefiable. The facilities feature a tipping area, processing area, a dust wall separating tipping and processing areas, maintenance area and employee facilities, and other structures including truck ramp and tunnel, a vehicle container maintenance building, weigh scales and scale office. Our scope of services included geotechnical characterization of the site to help design optimum locations of MRF structures, liquefaction evaluation, slope stability analyses, deep foundation design and developing design recommendations for the structural design of the various structures. Specific tasks included:
- Review available data and perform subsurface exploration including drilling, sampling, and logging of hollow-stem auger borings, bucket auger borings, and backhoe test pits, performing CPT soundings, and installing piezometers.
- Liquefaction analyses and estimating earthquake induced settlements, lateral displacement, and surface manifestation potential.
- Evaluate alternative stockpile plans, develop specifications for grading, drainage and site development, and geotechnical design for the unloading facility and parking area.
- Geotechnical recommendations for pile foundation, mat foundations, and lateral earth pressures for retaining and subgrade structures.
- Slope stability analyses of existing native slopes up to 130 feet high and of landslides to evaluate minimum setback distances for structures. Slope stability analyses were reviewed by LADPW.
- Seismic hazard analysis for site facilities to satisfy requirements of the CalARP program.
- On-call geotechnical observations for site grading and foundation evaluation to verify suitability of subgrade and construction materials.
- Developed indicator pile program to refine pile capacities and provided CQA services during the Indicator Pile program and driven pile installation.
- Geotechnical recommendations for building modifications, review of plans and specifications, and CQA services for grading and foundation construction for the new recycling equipment.