Steel Pier
Atlantic City, New Jersey
As part of the Taj Mahal Casino project, Paulus, Sokolowski and Sartor (PS&S) undertook the job of restoring the original dilapidated wooden Steel Pier to its former glory. PS&S performed numerous services including: determining the environmental conditions of the ocean front site, obtaining waterfront development permits, making soundings to determine water depth, maximum wave heights and cross current velocities, and drilling geotechnical borings to determine the soil conditions below the pier.
PS&S geotechnical and structural engineers determined that the pier would be founded on a unique foundation system, consisting of 54-inch-diameter pre-cast-concrete cylinder piles, extending to 40 feet below the scour line to support the portion of the pier over the water. These piles were load tested to 1,200 tons vertical capacity each (600-ton allowable capacity), which is to this day a record tested capacity for an individual pile in New Jersey.
The pier deck itself was designed by PS&S structural engineers to be a unique system of precast concrete "U" beams that would self-support between the cylinder pile locations without shoring or formwork. The concrete in the pier deck was specifically designed to resist the corrosive effects of the marine environment.