Publication:  San Francisco Business Times
Date:  April 25, 2014

In Greek mythology, the god Triton lived with Poseidon in a golden palace beneath the sea. In Foster City, Triton Pointe will be a 374,000-square-foot mixed-use space that Segue Construction hopes very much to keep out of the bay.

The project started construction in December and is part of the Pilgrim-Triton Masterplan, designed to gradually redevelop 20.75 acres of Foster City land to include more retail space, offices, and residences. The Triton Pointe area, which is being developed by Thompson Dorfman, encompasses approximately five acres and will add 166 housing units, 43,000 square feet of office space and 5,000 square feet of retail.

The construction cost for the project is $100 million. Segue’s contract is worth $48 million.

Extensive work has been done to create a stable foundation, according to Frank Kugler, the project manager in charge of construction. The site is built on engineered fill — crushed stone or gravel specifically used to bring the ground up to a certain level — which was on top of another problem.

“There’s four to five feet of engineered fill on top of that yucky stuff: Bay mud. We ran into a lot of that stuff and we had to export it. The mud is very soft, and during a seismic event it’s like being on Jello. It has no real cohesiveness.”

After getting the mud certified as uncontaminated, Segue was able to export it to a landfill in Redwood City and start work on the 600 to 800 piles — 90-foot columns driven into the ground to provide a stable surface for the building to rest on. The engineering plans also call for use of a “tie-down” system to make the building even more seismically secure. In this system, higher parts of the building are anchored to lower points, which limits lateral movement of the entire building during an earthquake.

The rest of the foundation will use something called hycrete.

“It’s a hydrophobic concrete mix,” which, Kugler explained, means the concrete repels water. “It’s new to Foster City, although not new to the industry. When it’s cast in a place like this, it’s an excellent waterproofing product.”

The building is projected to open in August 2015.

Original Article via: San Francisco Business Times