The basement area of a public building was located well below a known ground water elevation and thus subject to hydrostatic uplift forces generated by up to 5.3 feet of head pressure. The sealed concrete slab was secured by rock anchors using a defective connection detail between the top of the anchors and the slab. The lack of confining steel and the specification of a large embedded plate led to general failure of the connections and ultimately to failure of the slab. In 2019, GES Tech Group was retained on behalf of the contractor to characterize the root cause of the failure in a dispute with the engineer-of-record and forensic professionals retained by the owner.
