International Project Detail

Sakhalin Energy Investment Office Building

Location

Yuzhno Sakhalinsk, Russia

Client

Leo A. Daly

Services Provided

Earthquake Hazards Evaluation
Geotechnical Engineering Design Report
Phase I Environmental Site Assessment

Project Overview

The Sakhalin Energy Investment project consisted of the construction of six-story and four-story office buildings and a two-story parking garage in the city of Yuzhno, Sakhalinsk on the southern Sakhalin Island in Far East Russia. The building was constructed as an extension of the adjacent Sakhalin Center Building which houses a consortium of international oil companies developing offshore oil reserves. The site is located in a region of active earthquake faults with frequent, large historical earthquake events. Schnabel representatives were on site during the field investigation working with local drilling and soil laboratory testing firms to collect essential engineering data on subsurface conditions. Schnabel personnel researched past uses of the site and worked with local seismic experts in the Russian government and in private industry to obtain data required to perform an earthquake hazard evaluation and provide seismic design criteria for construction of the building.

As with most international work, particularly in remote post-Soviet Russia, the main challenges included language and cultural barriers, as well as access to information on building code requirements and other technical information necessary to complete the studies. In addition to these challenges was the difficulty of performing subsurface investigations in extreme cold with a two-meter frost penetration depth, utilizing early Cold War era drilling equipment.

Many of these challenges were overcome by excellent cooperation and support between project design team members. In addition, Schnabel personnel knowledge of the Russian language and customs, patience, and resourcefulness in locating and obtaining technical data available from local engineering firms and government agencies, provided the client the necessary geotechnical engineering and seismic design and hazard level information for a successful project.

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