Representative Projects

Pacific Geotechnical Engineering’s engineering geologists work to identify and characterize the geologic processes at work on your site. We then team with the geotechnical engineers on our staff to develop engineering approaches and solutions, and track the project through construction. We have wide experience in addressing many of the geologic/geotechnical challenges common throughout the greater San Francisco/Monterey Bay area:
  • active faults
  • strong ground shaking
  • liquefaction and seismically induced ground failure
  • landsliding
  • seismically induced landsliding
  • expansive soil and bedrock
  • settlement of deep fills
  • Bay mud and peat deposits
 		ResidentialSlideMarin

Contact us to discuss your site and to learn more regarding specific project experience that is directly relevant to your project. A few representative projects are described below:

Northern California Presbyterian Homes “The Sequoias” (Portola Valley, CA) – Geologic and geotechnical investigation for siting and design of a Skilled Nursing Facility and residential complex at a ridgecrest site bounded on each side by an active trace of the San Andreas fault. Project successfully sited; services provided included development of landslide stabilization measures; performance of a Probabilistic Seismic Hazard Assessment (PSHA). As a hospital facility, this project came under DSA (Dept. of State Architect) review.

City of Morgan Hill Community and Culture Center (Morgan Hill, CA) – Geologic and geotechnical investigation of an abandoned school site for a proposed multi-faceted municipal facility (playhouse, bandstand, water-feature children’s play area, meeting rooms, and convention/banquet rooms). Work involved deep subexcavation and replacement of deleterious soil, liquefaction assessment.

Villa Oaks Lane Landslide Repair (City of Saratoga, CA) – Geologic and geotechnical investigation of a City road damaged by El Nino rains. Working with the City, we designed a stabilization program, instrumented an adjacent house prior to construction, and monitored groundwater conditions during stabilization. While working on an adjacent site the year before, we had recognized this landslide and our analysis actually predicted that failure would occur during a heavy rainfall year.

Liddell Spring Landslide Investigation (Santa Cruz County, CA) – PGE was retained jointly by the City of Santa Cruz, County of Santa Cruz, and RMC Pacific Materials to evaluate a landslide complex near major City water source. Scope has included field and aerial photographic geologic mapping; large- and small-diameter borings; datalogger-linked piezometers, TDR cables, and hydrologic instrumentation; slope stability analysis; mitigation development.

Felton Booster Station (City of Santa Cruz Water Department/Carollo Engineers) – Geologic feasibility, liquefaction, and design-level geotechnical investigation for City pump station along the banks of Zayante Creek. Successfully developed compaction grouting program to mitigate the liquefaction/lateral spreading hazard.

Anne Sobrato High School Campus (Morgan Hill, CA) – Geotechnical investigation for a new high school in the Morgan Hill Unified School District on over 170+ acres. Provided geotechnical design criteria for all new structures, including classrooms, administration building, gymnasium, swimming pool, support structures, parking lots, athletic fields, underground utilities, detention basins, and offsite road and utility improvements. The project was approved by DSA and mass grading is complete.

Saratoga Hills Subdivision (Saratoga, CA) – Geologic feasibility and conceptual design geotechnical investigation for a multi-lot subdivision. According to existing City maps and previous investigations by others, the site was considered to be underlain by extensive landslide deposits. Our investigation demonstrated to our and the City geotechnical reviewer’s satisfaction that the development area is not underlain by landslide deposits, and that it is stable under seismic shaking conditions.

Santa Clara County Landslide Investigations (Santa Clara County, CA) – Several geologic and geotechnical investigations at various sites on mapped large landslide complexes, to evaluate the potential for seismically-induced landsliding. This recently-imposed requirement of the Seismic Hazard Mapping Act, as administered through California Geological Survey and local jurisdictions, is difficult to implement at the single-family lot scale. Using slope stability analysis software (including XSTABL; routines of Bray and Rathje; and Newmark analysis of Jibson ), we have developed a workable approach for characterization of the overall landslide stability under static and seismic conditions.