K+A performed a geotechnical engineering study for the Regional Transportation District Light Rail Maintenance Facility located at the intersection of Yale Avenue and south Elati Street in Denver and Englewood, Colorado. The facility was associated with the Light Rail Transit construction for the Southeast Corridor Expansion Project.

The facility included a 112,000 square foot operations and maintenance building along with a light rail staging area, a storage yard, and paved surfaces for truck loading dock areas and parking lots. Foundation alternatives for the building structure included a shallow spread footing foundation system and a deep foundation system consisting of straight-shaft drilled piers or driven steel H piles. Due to the variability in density and consistency of the natural overburden soils, as well as the presence of existing man-made fill, recommendations for subexcavation and replacement with properly compacted structural fill was required for the slab-on-grade floor systems and shallow spread footing foundation alternative. Analysis and resulting recommendations were provided for the light rail track system including design thickness of the ballast and subballast components.