III. SITE AND SUBSURFACE CONDITIONS 



3-01. EXISTING SITE CONDITIONS 



The Tudor Wharf site is located at 44 Charles River Avenue and 

 is bounded on the north by the Hoosac Spur rail line along 

 Waldo Street, on the east by a brickwall and the adjacent 

 Hoosac Pier, on the west by Charles River Avenue and the 

 Charlestown Bridge and extends south into Boston Harbor. The 

 surrounding ground surface is typically flat ranging in 

 elevation from about El. 108 to El. 110 (NACA) . 



The Tudor Wharf site is currently occupied by a Rapids 

 Furniture Co. warehouse constructed partially on land and 

 extending south on a pier over the Harbor. Portions of the 

 site to the south and west of the warehouse structure consist 

 of a level, asphalt paved truck loading area. This pavement is 

 bounded to the south by a granite block seawall which runs 

 east-west completely beneath the warehouse structure. To the 

 east of the warehouse, an existing brick wall separates the 

 site in a north-south direction from Waldo Street to the 

 granite block seawall. Beyond the brick wall to the east, a 

 relatively level asphalt paved parking area for the 

 Constitution Marina exists. 



The existing warehouse consists of a two-story high structure 

 constructed both on land and over water. The portion of the 

 structure built over water is of wood frame construction 

 supported on timber piles. Plans previously obtained from 

 Skidmore Owings & Merrill (SOM) indicate that repairs to the 

 pile foundations, consisting of the posting and occasional 

 replacement of damaged piles, were completed in 1944 and 1962. 

 The condition of the pile foundation was observed and found to 

 be in fair to poor condition. Many piles were observed to be 

 necked down at the mudline, several were missing and some were 

 found to be rotted at the butt. In addition, apparent fire 

 damage was observed as many of the floor joists and piles were 

 observed to be charred. 



The land portion of the warehouse was constructed in 1952 and 

 consists of a two-story high concrete block structure. 

 According to foundation plans previously obtained from SOM, the 

 structure is supported on timber (oak) piles driven to end 

 bearing below the fill and organic soils at approximately El. 

 90.5 to El. 86.0 (NACA). These 15 ton capacity oak piles 

 support both the building columns and a concrete structural 

 floor slab. 



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