Roche building 2

    As part of the modernization of its historic site in Basel, F. Hoffmann-La Roche Ltd is erecting Building 2: this office building will be 205 m tall and located directly opposite the new Building 1, which is already in operation.

     

    After the demolition of the existing Building 43, the construction of Building 2 required an excavation pit of 20 m deep (10 m below the groundwater table) as well as 103 large bored piles (d=1.5 m) as foundation piles on an area of 2,400 m². Because of risks of settlements damages in the surroundings and due to lack of space, anchors could hardly be implemented to support the excavation pit. Instead a bracing plate was designed (modified top-down method). For the highly stressed intersected bored pile wall, the primary piles had to be reinforced with HEM800-S355 steel beams (in addition to the reinforced secondary piles) to increase the bearing capacity.

    The foundation consists of a combined piled raft foundation (CPRF) to reduce the settlements of Building 2. The foundation was computed with 2 coupled finite element models (structural and geotechnical models). These models have been iteratively and automatically matched with a self-written procedure. The input parameters of the 3D-FE-models were calibrated according to the long-term measurement results of the neighboring high-rise Building 1 - also founded on a CPRF. In addition, several static and dynamic pile tests of Building 1, which were carried out up to failure, were used for a better calibration of the ground parameters.

    Services provided by Gruner Ltd's Geotechnical Engineering Department and Gruner Lüem AG comprise:

    • Planning for the following phases: preliminary design, basic design, detailed design, tendering
    • Demolition/deconstruction, excavation pit, combined piled raft foundation, bracing slab
    • Deformation forecasts and monitoring for the excavation pit, foundation and neighboring buildings due to the excavation of the pit, dewatering, construction of piles and anchors, building construction
    • Construction management for the demolition, excavation pit, foundation, bracing slap

    Services provided by Gruner Ltd's Structural Maintenance Department comprise:

    • Crack-monitoring, preservation of evidence, monitoring of noise and vibrations

    Structural design,
    Foundation and geotechnical engineering

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    Your contact person

    Jörg Meier
    Digital Development Geotechnical Engineering
    +41 61 317 62 53 | am9lcmcubWVpZXJAZ3J1bmVyLmNo

    Gruner AG
    St. Jakobs-Strasse 199
    CH-4020 Basel

    Laurent Pitteloud
    Head of Geotechnical Engineering
    +41 61 317 63 76 | bGF1cmVudC5waXR0ZWxvdWRAZ3J1bmVyLmNo

    Gruner AG
    St. Jakobs-Strasse 199
    CH-4020 Basel

    Ralf Hebecker
    Deputy Head of Geotechnical Engineering
    +41 61 317 61 21 | cmFsZi5oZWJlY2tlckBncnVuZXIuY2g=

    Gruner AG
    St. Jakobs-Strasse 199
    CH-4020 Basel

    Roland Marty
    Head of Business Unit Building retrofit Northwestern Switzerland
    +41 61 317 63 33 | cm9sYW5kLm1hcnR5QGdydW5lci5jaA==

    Gruner AG
    St. Jakobs-Strasse 199
    CH-4020 Basel

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    References on the subject

    Viaduct Sittertobel
    Competence Center for Industry 4.0
    Cardinal-Areal Rheinfelden
    Automated optimization of retaining walls for excavation pit