IBC Section 1810 governs every deep foundation project in Madison, but compliance means more than checking a box. The city sits on a complex sequence of glacial till, outwash sands, and lakebed silts deposited during the Wisconsin Glaciation. Groundwater runs high across the isthmus and surrounding Dane County, and frost depth reaches 48 inches per local amendments. Our pile foundation design work accounts for these conditions from the first boring log. We integrate site-specific CPT testing to map stratigraphy where standard borings miss thin compressible layers, and we run pile capacity analyses that reflect actual soil-structure interaction rather than textbook assumptions. For sites near the Yahara River or Lake Monona, lateral loading from soft lacustrine clays often controls the design more than axial capacity.
Pile design in Madison means designing for what the glacier left behind—and what it didn't.
