Improvements on a public pool facility in Needham, Massachusetts, involve Sea & Shore Contracting, Inc.’s sheet piling installation for water control.

A portion of the Sea & Shore Contracting, Inc. team on the job site of a noise and screening barrier wall project for a high-tech company in Waltham, Massachusetts.

Few people know the challenges of securing a building on a piece of land that, for whatever reason, objects. Working deep below the surface to set a foundation requires an understanding of the gradations of soil, stone and water, not to mention a consideration of factors such as utilities, proximity to other structures and other geological variables. Knowledge of excavation, drilling and pile-driving and operation of the best equipment for the job are also mandatory.

For these challenging projects, general contractors call on Sea & Shore Contracting, Inc. (Sea & Shore). Headquartered in Randolph, Massachusetts, Sea & Shore provides services that include marine, pile driving, excavation support and site work construction for customers throughout New England.

The small, streamlined company has earned a reputation for taking on difficult projects others elect to avoid, says President and Owner Michael Lally. “We’re small- to mid-sized, but we have substantial equipment and ability to do complicated work,” Lally says. “We have chosen to focus on moderate-sized projects where a sophisticated construction approach is required.”

The challenges that often come to the company are those construction projects requiring complicated deep excavations, special engineering for soft-soil sites on property hemmed in by other developed property, marine engineering or other problematic projects stemming from things like groundwater issues or prohibitive project costs.

“We solve a lot of complicated issues for a great group of clients,” he notes.

Lally says that Sea & Shore has invested in modern earth and marine equipment, including specialty cranes, drill rigs and multifunctional pile-driving machines. The company has 25 employees. In addition to mechanics, equipment operators and tradesmen, the team at Sea & Shore includes an operations manager, project manager and administrative employees.

“Each of our key employees have been employed at Sea & Shore for over 10 years,” Lally says. “This continuity allows us to evolve our solutions in a team approach where input from all members is incorporated in planning and execution. “For a relatively small staff, our crews are quite talented and versatile and eager to do what’s necessary to meet the needs of customers,” he says.

These customers are typically based or do work in Massachusetts, Connecticut, Rhode Island, Vermont, New Hampshire and Maine. They include private developers, general contractors and state and federal public agencies.

Innovative Solutions

The company often takes a design-build approach to projects, explains Lally. This approach establishes a natural process for evaluating and analyzing a complicated project to develop the best solution. As a design-build contractor, Sea & Shore first works to understand its clients’ needs. Its innovative solutions include deep excavations, driven and drilled foundations, underpinning of existing buildings and construction of near-shore and offshore marine structures.

“Small buildings and homes typically are not in need of our services,” he notes. “But where loads are substantial or the ground is unsuitable, we gladly offer our services to support these structures.”

In addition to work with developers and construction managers, Sea & Shore is prequalified to serve the Massachusetts Department of Transportation on bridge or highway construction projects and provides infrastructure construction in other New England states as well. Additionally, developers of renewable energy projects like solar field arrays, solar canopies or wind turbine farms increasingly call on Sea & Shore for foundation construction help, according to Lally.

Roots of Success

Sea & Shore was founded in 1998. Lally joined in 2000 as a partner and bought out the company’s original owner a few years later. Lally considered the company a good fit, aligning with his years of experience working for geotechnical engineering companies.

Due to his background and interests, Lally says it was inevitable that Sea & Shore eventually focused on the more complicated foundation construction projects. As a child, he grew up around the field of engineering. Lally’s father was an engineer who owned a small environmental consulting company. Although he studied various applications of engineering in college, Lally was drawn to foundation construction. He found it interesting to be part of significant, heavy-civil construction and particularly liked working on projects where solutions needed to be creative, practical and affordable.

Building Stories

Lally recalls interesting projects with ease. These often reveal the types of solutions that have made up Sea & Shore’s history. The company specializes in the design and installation of systems that include or feature driven piles, drilled shafts, ground improvement, marine structures, soldier pile and lagging, sheet piling, secant pile walls, soil nailing, concrete pit underpinning, jet grouting, and other unique underground construction aspects such as water storage and tunneling jacking and receiving pits.

“Sea & Shore Contracting designs and installs a wide variety of excavation support and underpinning systems suited for specific site and ground condition considerations,” he says.

The company’s designs consider the need for groundwater control, limiting lateral deflections and ground movement behind the support walls, site logistics and potential impacts to adjacent structures/utilities due to installation and removal techniques.

“We have constructed hundreds of systems for a variety of applications. These include systems that are designed to remain in place after construction as permanent retaining walls,” he adds.

For the Economic Development & Industrial Corporation in Lynn, Massachusetts, Sea & Shore managed construction of a commuter ferry terminal. The company fabricated and installed floating barges for vessel berthing and passenger loading, as well as designed and installed a sophisticated aluminum platform and ramps that allow Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) access to the floating barges at any point throughout the tide cycle.

Sea & Shore constructed a 15-foot-tall, cast-in-place concrete wave barrier to protect vessels and pile-anchored barges during storms. The barrier was pile-supported and suspended approximately 5 to 8 feet above the mudline.

Another complicated project in Brookline, Massachusetts, included construction of an internally braced, concrete secant wall foundation system, excavations to depths of 28 feet below street grade, dewatering, excavation/soil management and disposal of over 9,000 tons of surplus soil. The company installed on-site utilities including water quality and pump station structures at depths below 20 feet from street grade, as well as a stormwater recharge system. Additionally, the company provided site restoration and paving services. All of this work was performed on a site less than 12,500 square feet.

“Work on the site could be described as cozy,” Lally notes. “The project necessitated construction of a pile-supported platform extending over the excavation to provide a staging area for cranes, concrete pumps and large site work equipment to complete this deep excavation,” Lally notes.

It’s all just another day’s work for the small, but driven company that proves itself with each and every job.

“We tend to be awarded construction projects that not many seek out,” Lally says. “We enjoy the challenge of finding the not-always-obvious solutions and understanding the goals of our customers to see if an alternate path can bring about a less traditional but more cost-effective solution.”