Have you seen this string of emails? Bill Campbell, Jr., P.E. Kleinfelder 214 837 4476 mbl owcampbell@kleinfelder.com ________________________________ From: Wade Geistweidt To: Bill Campbell; Marc Miller Sent: Wed Jan 19 15:27:11 2011 Subject: FW: Retaining Wall Backfill Here is the end of the headache. Wade Geistweidt Engineering Tech 2035 Central Circle Suite 110 McKinney, TX 75069 o| 972.562.4677 c| 469.576.9951 f | 972.542.4366 ________________________________ From: Eric T. Little [ELittle@udr.com] Sent: Wednesday, January 19, 2011 4:19 PM To: 'echristiansen@halff.com'; 'cbarnett@addisontx.gov'; 'thenson@austin-ind.com' Cc: Nick Jacob; 'tforrest@addisontx.gov'; Wade Geistweidt; Tom Lamberth; 'blafoy@ndmce.com' Subject: Re: Retaining Wall Backfill Todd, The backfill at Ponte is good to go. Please proceed with the rest of the work. Thanks, Eric From: Christiansen, Eric [mailto:echristiansen@halff.com] Sent: Wednesday, January 19, 2011 03:15 PM To: Eric T. Little; Maxwell Zhang ; Barnett, Clay Cc: Nick Jacob; Tom Forrest ; wgeistweidt@kleinfelder.com ; Tom Lamberth; 'Brian J. LaFoy' Subject: RE: Retaining Wall Backfill Gentlemen, We concur that the in-place backfill material, as tested by Kleinfelder, is acceptable for the Ponte abutments without modification. Sincerely, Eric Christiansen Eric S. Christiansen, P.E., SECB, LEED AP Senior Structural Engineer HALFF ASSOCIATES, INC. 1201 North Bowser Road Richardson, Texas 75081 Phone 214-346-6284 Fax 214-739-0095 Cell 972-955-2996 www.halff.com From: Eric T. Little [mailto:ELittle@udr.com] Sent: Wednesday, January 19, 2011 3:17 PM To: Maxwell Zhang; Barnett, Clay; Christiansen, Eric Cc: Nick Jacob; Tom Forrest; wgeistweidt@kleinfelder.com; Tom Lamberth; 'Brian J. LaFoy' Subject: RE: Retaining Wall Backfill Maxwell, Thank you for your time in reviewing and responding to this issue. Eric Christiansen, I believe this settles the issue with the backfill material at the Ponte abutments. Please respond as to your understanding so we can notify AB&R that they can proceed with the approach slab and paving. Thanks, Eric From: Maxwell Zhang [mailto:geoteleng@yahoo.com] Sent: Wednesday, January 19, 2011 3:11 PM To: Eric T. Little; Clay Barnett; echristiansen@halff.com Cc: Nick Jacob; Tom Forrest; wgeistweidt@kleinfelder.com Subject: Re: Retaining Wall Backfill Eric, Our slope stability analysis was based on two critical sections provided by HALFF. One of the sections exhibited a factor of safety of 1.31 for a long term condition. Lower strength backfill materials of the proposed retaining walls may result in a factor of safety of less than 1.3. Usually, we are looking for a factor of safety of 1.5 for any structure placed on a slope for a long term condition. HALFF is the design engineer of the retaining wall in the record. We have no problem with their decisions. Let me know if we can be of any further assistance during the course of the project. Sincerely, Wei (Maxwell) Zhang, P.E., President GEOTEL Engineering, Inc. 2906 Ladybird Lane Dallas, Texas 75220 972-850-2900 972-850-2901 (fax) 214-317-2950 (cell) wzhang@geotelusa.com geoteleng@yahoo.com ________________________________ This e-mail and any attachments transmitted with it are the property of GEOTEL and may contain information that is confidential or otherwise protected from disclosure. The information it contains is intended solely for the use of the one to whom it is addressed, and any other recipient should destroy all copies. ________________________________ From: Eric T. Little To: Clay Barnett ; "geoteleng@yahoo.com" ; "echristiansen@halff.com" Cc: Nick Jacob ; Tom Forrest ; "wgeistweidt@kleinfelder.com" Sent: Tue, January 18, 2011 4:45:23 PM Subject: RE: Retaining Wall Backfill Maxwell, I appreciate you taking the time to meet with Nick and I today and I am glad that we were able to finally get on the same page here. Per our conversation on the phone a bit ago, HALFF used the factor of safety that was shown in your Global Slope Analysis for the design of the abutment at Ponte. Also as discussed, HALFF feels that the backfill material currently in place at this abutment is good to go – this assessment is based on the data provided by Kleinfelder from the tri-axle testing they did on this material. Per my discussion with you, if HALFF is ok with this material, you are ok with it. Please confirm. Thanks, Eric From: Clay Barnett [mailto:cbarnett@addisontx.gov] Sent: Monday, January 10, 2011 11:10 AM To: Eric T. Little Cc: Nick Jacob; Tom Forrest Subject: RE: Retaining Wall Backfill Eric, Please discuss this with Maxwell. Thanks, Clay Barnett, P.E. Town Engineer Town of Addison 16801 Westgrove Drive Addison, TX 75001-2818 Office: (972) 450-2857 Error! Filename not specified.AddisonGreen_signature_600 copy" src="cid:1.2611588601@web59502.mail.ac4.yahoo.com" width=383 height=44> From: Nick Jacob [mailto:PJacob@udr.com] Sent: Friday, January 07, 2011 4:58 PM To: Clay Barnett Subject: Fw: Retaining Wall Backfill From: Maxwell Zhang [mailto:geoteleng@yahoo.com] Sent: Friday, January 07, 2011 01:26 PM To: Nick Jacob Cc: Jonathan McCulley Subject: Retaining Wall Backfill Mr. Jacob, Based on the conversation with Jonathan McCulley with Halff Associates, Inc. today, he only needs lateral earth pressure of the materials with strength parameters provided by other consulting firm. The material tested does not meet the requirements as recommended in our Geotechnical report. We understood that the material had been placed behind the retaining walls. We do not feel comfortable to provide only lateral earth pressure without performing any studies of implications on global slope stability of the retaining walls by using lower strength materials. I will be out of town next week. I do not expect that we can complete the studies within two weeks. Sincerely, Wei (Maxwell) Zhang, P.E., President GEOTEL Engineering, Inc. 2906 Ladybird Lane Dallas, Texas 75220 972-850-2900 972-850-2901 (fax) 214-317-2950 (cell) wzhang@geotelusa.com geoteleng@yahoo.com ________________________________ This e-mail and any attachments transmitted with it are the property of GEOTEL and may contain information that is confidential or otherwise protected from disclosure. The information it contains is intended solely for the use of the one to whom it is addressed, and any other recipient should destroy all copies. ________________________________ From: Nick Jacob To: "geoteleng@yahoo.com" Sent: Fri, January 7, 2011 1:17:23 PM Subject: pjacob@udr.com ________________________________ No virus found in this message. Checked by AVG - www.avg.com Version: 10.0.1191 / Virus Database: 1435/3371 - Release Date: 01/10/11