Westside Light Rail

The Washington Park Station of the Westside Light Rail Project is on a deep-seated ancient landslide. When excavation for the station headhouse began, movement occurred along the ancient shear plane of the landslide. Excavation was temporarily halted as Landslide Technology, a division of Cornforth Consultants, determined that a local slope failure would likely occur during construction.

In association with the firm of Parsons Brinckerhoff Quade & Douglas from New York, Landslide Technology conceived an imaginative solution to provide resistance against sliding at a very low cost. Piles that were initially designed as the foundation support for the stations vertical load were modified to resist the lateral forces of the deep landslide. A line of piles on the uphill side of the excavation was redesigned as heavily reinforced concrete shear piles. Excavation was completed and the shear piles were incorporated as part of the station foundation.

Cornforth Consultants won the Project of the Year Award in Engineering Excellence in the State of Oregon for this remediation work.