- Small marginal urban sites, often next to wetlands and/or residential areas
- Geotechnical engineering services
- Borings, test pits and field resistivity testing
- Foundation design and construction recommendations
Challenge
Provide geotechnical engineering services for foundation and site design for urban battery energy storage systems sites in New York City (NYC), including Staten Island and Brooklyn. Geotechnical challenges included:
- Geotechnical sampling through compressible and organic soils
- Presence of deep fill materials with subsurface obstructions
- Shallow depth to groundwater
- Highly corrosive soils
Solution
GZA provided geotechnical services, including borings, test pits, field electrical resistivity testing and reporting, at 12 sites in Brooklyn for one BESS developer and 22 sites on Staten Island for another BESS developer in 2021 and 2022. Due to the difficulty of permitting in NYC, only one of the sites has been completed and is now operational in early 2023. These BESS included inverters, transformers, switchgears, and associated support structures on small marginal sites, often adjacent to wetland and residential areas.
Based on the data obtained from the subsurface explorations, GZA developed geotechnical engineering reports that provided foundation design and construction recommendations.
Benefit
GZA was able to provide foundation design and construction solutions to identified geotechnical issues, such as deep fill and/or compressible organic soils, often requiring helical ground screw foundation or excavation and replacement with compacted structural fill. GZA’s affordable foundation solutions addressed the project requirements of each site, to facilitate the construction of the battery energy storage systems. One site on Grand Street in Brooklyn is now complete and operational.