Helical Piles Save Small Town High School

Cunningham, Kansas, a sleepy little town with a population of 462 people, reached out to IWP Foundation Repair to restore their local high school. While the high school student body may be small (73 students), their settlement issues were anything but. IWP is experienced in tackling jobs all over the state of Kansas, so with the help of McCownGordon Construction, they were able to successfully install 34 helical piles to restore the school to its original elevation in just two weeks.

The crews faced multiple challenges during the two-week project. One such obstacle was the large footings and proper benching of the soil. To safely protect the team from cave-ins, they excavated the sides of the trenches with a series of horizontal levels using a method called benching. Safety protocol dictates that the bottom depth of the trench should not exceed 4 feet of the first bench. This was critical in helping address the large footings, but it was not a complete solution. The team also relied on cutting the concrete and shoring the foundation with temporary support props. By utilizing all these tactics together, they successfully restored the high school to its former glory and overcame the settlement issues.