Location:
Bend, Oregon
Client:
Mt. Bachelor Ski & Summer Resort
Services Provided:
Geotechnical Engineering
Sitework Monitoring
Special Inspection
Construction Materials Testing
Project Overview:
Mt. Bachelor is one of the most popular ski areas in North America and is also a year-round destination resort. Recent expansion projects include construction of the Cloudchaser high-speed quad chair lift, a Sunrise Lodge beginner chair-lift, 3-stage zip-line, and Sunrise parking area expansion. With the addition of Cloudchaser, an additional 635 acres were added to the resort’s lift-serviced terrain. Cloudchaser includes 21 towers that span the 6,576-foot-long lift and the Sunrise area expansion added over 300 additional spaces to the mountain’s eastern base area. The zip-line is a dual, 3-stage feature with 1,400 feet of vertical drop from the upper Pine Marten lift station to the West Village Lodge. The Mt. Bachelor ZipTour is the northwest’s steepest, fastest, and highest elevation zip adventure.
Scope of Work:
Over the past five years, Wallace Group has been Mt. Bachelor’s Geotechnical Engineer and provided subsurface exploration and geotechnical design services to various project design and construction teams. Wallace Group’s prompt delivery of critical geotechnical alternatives were integral to maintaining fast-track concurrent project schedules during the short summer construction seasons. During construction, Wallace Group also provided comprehensive geotechnical monitoring, special inspection and materials testing services to meet Mt. Bachelor and U.S. Forest Service requirements.
Challenges:
Technical and job-site safety challenges included remote access and highly variable geologic terrain and materials. A significant geotechnical design challenge for the Cloudchaser project included the use of on-site light-weight soil backfill. Wallace Group engineers evaluated the lift station and tower foundation excavations individually to provide recommendations and soil backfill properties that were used in sliding resistance calculations.
