PDCA CONTRACTOR MEMBER
Atlas Foundation Company
Focused on professionalism and quality service
By AKim Biggar tlas Foundation Company,
based in Osseo, Minn., just
northwest of Minneapolis, is a
deep foundation specialty contractor serving
primarily the Upper Midwest region.
Founded as Atlas Pile Driving Company in
1968 by George (Bud) Stannard, the company
diversified over the years into other
areas of deep foundation construction,
and changed its name to Atlas Foundation
Company to reflect its broadened scope.
Current president Mike Moeller joined
Atlas in 2000. Upon Stannard’s death in
2008, Moeller and his son Pete assumed
ownership of the company.
Services and equipment
Atlas is a building site preparation and deep
foundation construction firm. Its services
fall into five areas: foundation pier drilling,
earth retention systems, grouted anchors/
micropile installations, piling and helical
pier installations.
“In any given year, 20% to 30% of our total
company volume is piling,” said Moeller.
“We do all types of driven piles, including
sheet pile, pipe pile, H-pile.”
For its piling work, the company owns
most of the equipment it needs, including
a Terex HC80 crane, among others,
along with a “shedful of diesel hammers
and leads,” said Moeller. The hammers Atlas
uses nowadays are mostly Delmag; it also
owns some older-model Link-Belt hammers.
To move the cranes, Atlas owns a
lowboy trailer.
“Our yard consists of 10 acres with multiple
shops for the various divisions,” said
Moeller. “Our mechanics keep up with
maintenance of all the equipment and
trucks in the fleet.”
Early on in a driven foundation pile
project, Atlas recommends third-party testing
with a Pile Driving Analyzer (PDA) to
develop the driving criteria. The company
has the equipment to do this testing itself
and an engineer certified to conduct PDA
testing on the company’s driven piles.
The company has focused on adding
new software tools to help the team
improve their processes and save time.
This software has allowed them to crossreference
data, enabling them to estimate
what service would be best suited for a
given location.
“This information is priceless, as it
allows us to estimate our scope on projects
more accurately during preliminary analysis,”
said Moeller.
Among the piling projects Atlas has
recently completed was the installation of
sheet pile on a project near Nebraska City
for APTIM Corp. and the Corps of Engineers.
“Atlas was one of five contractors that
were working on the installation of a mile of
50 to 60-foot-tall sheet pile. We were driving
sheeting to protect the dikes that keep the
Missouri River in its banks,” said Moeller.
“We also just completed contract work
on the Rushmore Plaza Civic Center Arena
in Rapid City, S.D. This project consisted of
about four hundred and fifty 9.625-inchdiameter
piles.
“One of the more famous projects we
worked on locally was the Minnesota Twins
Ballpark, where we drove just over two
thousand eight hundred 9.625-inch-diameter
pipe piles.”
Safety and education
Moeller is proud of the Atlas team.
“We have a staff of engineers and project
managers that complement our excellent
field personnel,” he said. “They are all competent,
experienced and focused on quality.
Our employees’ level of professionalism and
drive to be the best in the industry makes
me very proud.”
It is evident when talking with Moeller
that he has a passion for the safety and wellbeing
of his team.
www.piledrivers.org PILEDRIVER | 39
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