Story

The Sault Sainte Marie, Michigan building's design is a new prototype for Walmart, incorporating more green technologies and a higher end look.  It's the first of this new style in Michigan and only the 3^rd of its kind nationwide.  The construction of the building was precast, tilt up concrete walls with structural steel columns and bar joist.  The ground the building sits on is considered ‘fat' clay, with some of the highest plastic index values for clay in the entire State of Michigan.  To prevent the building and parking lot from eventually sinking, the entire site was lime stabilized.  Lime was tilled into the top 18 inches of the sub grade changing the soil chemistry by substantially lowering the plastic index and liquid limits and creating a surface capable of supporting heavy loads.  This is a unique process for the Upper Peninsula.  The majority of this building was constructed under winter conditions with steel crews erecting in snowing weather and masons working under heated shelters.