MAA GROUP Consulting Engineering

Deepest excavation in Taiwan

Core Pacific City is a shopping center in Taipei with a total floor space of 204,000 sqm. Built in 2001, the structure is a complex of two buildings - an L-shaped building with specialty boutiques connected to a sphere which contains the Mira Department Store. The complex consists of 12 above-ground stories and 7 underground levels reaching a depth of 31.7 m, the deepest excavation ever done in Taiwan. The sphere, Core Pacific's most prominent feature, is 11 stories tall and made of granite imported from Finland, while the L-shaped portion is made of granite from Spain. The mall's architects were the Jerde Partnership and Artech, Inc, while Arup was in charge of structural work.

Scope of work

MAA was hired to perform geotechnical consultancy services for the project, including geotechnical and site investigation, in-situ/lab testing, analysis of pile-loading capacity, foundation optimization, pipe roof and mitigation gates design. The foundation excavation depth was approximately 31 m, using the top-down construction method. The foundation construction consists of continuous walls of 52 m, foundation piles of 50 to 52 m in length and 1 m into the gravel layer, and 4 sets of 82 m deep earth-retaining piles.

In addition, MAA was appointed as project manager for the whole construction, in particular for MEP services, its scope of work including specifications and cost estimates review, MEP systems evaluation and subcontractors selection, management construction supervision, quality assurance and occupational health and safety, plans, designs and budgets review, MEP systems performance verification, etc.