Michie Stadium is a landmark in the history of football. Overlooking the beautiful scenery of the Hudson Valley, it has been recognized as one of the more popular stadiums in the country. The original structure was completed for the 1924 season and formally dedicated to the memory of Dennis Mahan Michie, who organized, managed and coached the first football team in history of West Point. At the turn of the century, construction projects were underway to meet the new demands on this old structure, the Kimsey Athletic Center, Randall Hall, and the Hoffman Press Box. The 150,000 square foot facility will include a new strength and development center, an auditorium, the Hall of Army Sports, and other amenities.

These new structures were to be constructed outside and immediately adjacent to the existing stands. During the excavations for the new facilities, it was discovered that the footings of the columns and bearing walls of the stands were bearing on soils above the proposed bottom of excavation. There was great concern about the potential instability of the stadium structure. Underpinning of the footings was the only option; however, there was also concern about significant impact to the construction schedule.

Schnabel Engineering and Structural Preservation Systems' GeoStructural Division were called to provide a turnkey solution to this problem. The project team proposed the utilization of micropiles for underpinning of the footings prior to the start of the excavations. The micropiles were conceived as self-drilling, self-grouting bars embedded 5 ft into rock. For the column footings, Schnabel Engineering designed a reinforced concrete cap attached to the existing pedestal. The bars were provided with a top plate that was embedded in the pile cap concrete. For the wall footing, a bracket was used to transfer the load from the wall to eccentric micropiles.

This efficient design facilitated an accelerated micropile installation time with reduced or no impact to the project schedule. The entire underpinning system was in place one week after Schnabel & Structural Preservation Systems was retained.