The North Dakota Bakken oil patch can be a challenging place to work for many reasons, not the least of which are the short construction season, market timing pressures and soft soils. AET performed geotechnical exploration and design consultation for a new crude oil loading facility for Dakota Plains Holdings, LLC, that features a bridge to carry oil tanker trucks, loop rail track, bulk fuel-oil tanks, frac sand storage silos and service roads.

Since the site sits near the Missouri River on an alluvial (river) plain, the soils at the site were marginal, soft clay. Members of our Geotechnical Group in the Dickinson, Williston, Rapid City and St. Paul offices worked together to provide sophisticated analysis of the site including deep soil borings and laboratory testing to estimate settlement, dynamic pile driving analyzer (PDA) testing for the bridge foundations and soil-cement mix design to create a stable foundation for roads and heavy freight rail. AET also provided quality assurance testing services during construction.

For more information about these services, visit our Geotechnical,  Deep Foundations, and Instrumentation pages.