San Francisco – Jay Paul Company has announced that Level 10 Construction, a full-service Bay Area-based general contractor dedicated to the highest standards, has successfully installed the deepest known construction shaft in San Francisco at the developer’s 181 Fremont site. The depth bored below street level for the first test shaft at 181 Fremont is 263 feet, surpassing any other in the city’s construction project history.

181 Fremont is Jay Paul Company’s world-class office and residential tower that is heralding the next phase of growth in the city’s South of Market (SOMA) district and defining the new Transbay Transit Center complex neighborhood. The 54-story high rise will offer a collection of high-end residences known as Park 181 on the uppermost levels, plus more than 33 floors of commercial and retail space.

“Level 10 worked with subcontractor Malcolm Drilling Company to install the deepest-ever drilled shaft in the city at 181 Fremont, a building that will eventually have a total of 42 drilled shafts to embed its foundation into the ground,” explained Steve DeWees, project executive for Level 10 Construction. “The site for the 802-foot tall structure has a relatively small footprint of about 130 feet squared, so the depth and size of the shafts in both compression and tension will allow the building to react to wind forces as well as seismic events in an optimal way.”

The 181 Fremont drilled shaft is the deepest to date within San Francisco. Malcolm employed a partially cased polymer drilling method during the process. The six-foot diameter shaft is reinforced with a full length rebar cage and has a concrete strength of 6,000 pounds per square inch. To transfer high vertical loads into competent bearing stratum and to limit building settlements, the shaft was drilled 30 feet into a mixture of Sandstone and Shale, locally known as Franciscan Complex.

Level 10 conducted an Osterberg Load Test or O-cell test to measure the capacity of the drilled shaft, and announced it successfully exceeded the project’s rigorous design criteria. The O-cell is a hydraulic, high capacity sacrificial loading device installed within the drilled test shaft to analyze the side friction and end bearing capacity of the shaft.

181 Fremont, scheduled to open in early 2016, is a 54- story high-rise development that will ascend to become the tallest office and residential tower in San Francisco and in the Western United States. Jay Paul Company, resolute in developing 181 Fremont as the preeminent mixed-use building in the city, has established itself with best-in-class projects for leading technology, research and development, and professional services firms, and is well known for innovative projects throughout California.

181 Fremont epitomizes the astute and artful integration of a high-rise development with its existing and evolving surroundings. It is one of only two buildings that will be directly connected to the 5.4-acre rooftop park atop the adjacent Transbay Transit Center, and the $500 million residential and office tower will provide convenient access to the new public transportation hub connecting MUNI, CalTrain, AC Transit, SamTrans, and several other Bay Area transit lines.

The spectacular new structure will offer 411,000 square feet of Class A+ office space on 33 floors, providing open floor plates with optimum workspace flexibility and impressive views. Inhabitants of Park 181, the collection of high-end residences on floors 39 through 53, will enjoy exclusive amenities such as an Owners’ Lounge, Fitness Center, wrap-around balcony, BBQ grill, fire pit, kitchen, and dining room on the 37th floor, which provides an interval between commercial and residential spaces. Sixty-eight two- and three-bedroom ultra-luxury residences will occupy the tower’s upper levels. At its base, 181 Fremont’s open lobby will create a pedestrian-friendly experience for office tenants, guests, and passersby, and Park 181 residents will enjoy an exclusive, fully staffed residential lobby. All will benefit from local services available within the building’s 2,600 square feet of retail space on the first and fifth floors.

Targeted to achieve a LEED Platinum certification, 181 Fremont will incorporate innovative design strategies for sustainability, water savings and energy efficiency while providing a safer and healthier living and working environment. The design will encourage a sustainable lifestyle for all who live and work there. 181 Fremont is also within walking distance of San Francisco’s top employers, world-class restaurants, shopping areas, and the waterfront.

Designed by globally recognized architectural firm Heller Manus Architects, 181 Fremont will present a dramatic focal point for San Francisco, identifiable on the horizon by its unique exoskeleton design and magnificent spire that will ascend from the crown of the building. 181 Fremont’s design is an expression of world-class modernism, sustainability, and neighborhood integration, and is intended to reflect the spirit of the city’s transformation as the Transbay Transit Center emerges to define San Francisco’s new hub.