Retaining and Freestanding Walls for the New England Patriots Stadium Complex

THE CHALLENGE

Adjacent to the New England Patriots' Gillette Stadium stands Patriot Place, a commercial development that features shopping, entertainment, restaurants, and a hotel. It also houses the Hall at Patriot Place, which honors the history of the New England Patriots team.

In the initial construction phase, the development required two large retaining walls, one standing 30 feet (9.1 meters) tall at its highest point and the other standing 20 feet (6.1 meters) tall at its highest point.

Redi-Rock retaining walls and freestanding walls helped create space and provide access for this shopping center development.

THE SOLUTION

To meet the needs of the development, the project's general contractor Suffolk Construction recommended Redi-Rock.

Redi-Rock is a large block retaining and freestanding wall system that allows designers to create structural wall solutions using massive interlocking precast concrete blocks. These walls are easy to install and look great. The blocks were manufactured locally by Redi-Rock Walls of New England, which also helped keep freight costs down.

The 30 foot (9 meter) high Redi-Rock retaining wall was built first, and extends 150 feet (45.7 meters) for a square footage of 3,321 square feet (308.5 square meters). Then the 20 foot (6 meter) high wall was installed, extending 150 feet (45.7 meters) and encompassing 2,840 square feet (263.8 square meters). Both walls were reinforced using geogrid as specified by the engineer.

Each wall was constructed using Redi-Rock Cobblestone texture blocks, which provide the structural capabilities of a large block retaining wall with a smaller-scale look. Each Cobblestone texture block has the appearance of six smaller blocks on each face, and individual blocks are nearly indistinguishable in a finished wall. Each block is cast in a mold taken from real stone using wet-cast concrete-which gives walls a more natural finish while providing durability and strength.

At a contractor's meeting, project planners were discussing using natural stone freestanding benches to provide seating in the walkways of Patriot Place.

After the meeting was done, the Redi-Rock Walls of New England sales rep, Casey Scavone, approached the superintendent of the development and proposed using Redi-Rock freestanding walls and benches instead of natural stone.

Redi-Rock freestanding walls, steps, and caps created a great finish for this shopping development.

"I told him I didn't think he'd get the job done in time with natural stone and that I could save him a lot of time and money if he would consider using Redi-Rock. I showed him some brochures and photos of what we could do, and he said 'absolutely,'" Scavone said.

Having seen the quality of product and the speed and accuracy of the installations, Woody Beal of The Kraft Group had no reservations about using Redi Rock Cobblestone freestanding blocks as a substitute for natural stone walls and capstones.

In addition to the approximately 2,500 square feet (232 square meters) of freestanding walls, Patriot Place also used more than 30 Redi-Rock steps to provide access from one level to the next.

After everything was installed, the steps, freestanding blocks, and caps were field-stained by Rod Ballou of Redi-Rock Walls of New England. He used a blend of black, blue, and orange stain blended together and named the color "New England Ledge." The owners of Patriot Place were so pleased with the look of the stained Redi-Rock walls that they hired Redi-Rock Walls of New England to stain 60,000 square feet (5,574 square meters) of concrete sidewalks in the complex.

The 1.3 million square foot (120774 square meter) Patriot Place development opened in late 2008.

PROJECT DETAILS

Project: Patriot Place #112 Customer: The Kraft Group Engineer: Vanasse Hangen Brustlin, Inc. Manufacturer: Redi-Rock Walls of New England - Massachusetts Division Installer: J.D. Trucking and Excavating Location: Foxborough, Massachusetts Year Built: 2008