Suburban Investment Building

YU & Associates, Inc. (YU) was called on an emergency basis to provide a Geotechnical engineering services to trouble shoot the settlement to an occupied commercial building. The Suburban Investment building is a 6,000 square feet variable height structure, situated along side a migrating stream. The building was reportedly constructed around 1940 and there after exterior supports were added to the brick wall in an effort to stabilize the structure.

YU conducted an emergency inspection of the building, and revealed several cracks on both the exterior and interior walls and in the basement area. YU recommended and installed crack monitoring tell-tales across selected existing cracks. The tell-tales were monitored at regular intervals to study the cracks due to any settlement activity.

Based on field monitoring results, YU recommended immediate temporary measures to stabilize the buttressed exterior wall and the foundation. The measures included the placemat of rip-rap adjacent to the wall to provide additional foundation embedment and resistance to scouring. YU also expedited a NJDEP stream encroachment permit for maintenance measures.