Food Hub Construction Update

The Farm Fresh RI Food Hub is a 60,000 sq ft building — half of which will be occupied by Farm Fresh RI programs and operations, including a year-round farmers market. Remaining space will be leased to food and farm businesses. Completion: Fall 2020

For the last three years, we have been hard at work on all the tasks needed to take on a real estate development project — including defining the project, planning and designing the building, performing due diligence, acquiring and remediating the formerly blighted site, and accomplishing fundraising. This hard work came together this summer, when we closed on financing and began construction on The Farm Fresh RI Food Hub at the corner of Sims and Kinsley Ave in the Valley neighborhood of Providence.

Now we have begun documenting the construction activities and are proud to share our progress!

General Contractor, CASE Construction, mobilized on August 19, with the first order of business being some very extensive site work. The first stage of this work involved removing an existing 60,000 sq ft concrete floor slab, a remnant from a former mill structure, and a very worn asphalt parking lot, which together covered the entire three-acre site.

This material was stockpiled and crushed for future use as “fill” on the site.

Recognizing the challenges of climate change and our proximity to the Woonasquatucket River, our design calls for us to raise the grade of the site by 2 ft. This fill will help us do that.

One of our biggest concerns from the start had been what we would find beneath the slab because we know there have been several generations of buildings on the site. We did extensive testing and a great deal of brainstorming with our engineers, architects, and contractor to determine the best approach to make sure the soil beneath the Food Hub will be able to support our new building and operations.

We elected to implement a two-part hybrid approach, which first called for excavating the 60,000 sq ft building footprint down to 6 ft below grade. At 6 ft, we would avoid hitting the water table and make contact with any serious obstructions. And we did encounter obstructions, ranging from former foundations, footings, and slabs — to large pieces of MARBLE.

The marble found on our site dates back to the late 1890s, when the Norcross Brothers Co. set up one of the largest mills in the US on our very spot — to cut all the marble used to build the RI State House!

After removal of obstructions, we were ready for part-two of our approach: the installation of 800 aggregate piers, spaced 12 ft apart and going down 12 ft below grade over the entire building footprint.

The aggregate piers reinforce the soil to increase its weight-bearing capacity and help prevent soil settlement. The installation process is fascinating and was carried out by three people over a three-week period. First used was a piece of equipment that looks like a giant corkscrew, called an auger. Every 12 ft, the operator made a hole 20 inch in diameter and 12 ft deep.

The auger was followed by a larger piece of equipment known by professionals as a vibroflot (but called a rig by everybody else).

The rig deposited crushed stone into the holes made by the auger and compacted that stone to form a pier — requiring someone to constantly scurry around in a bobcat, bringing crushed stone to the rig. Using this process, 800 aggregate piers were installed, and only 12 obstructions were encountered. Best of all, each and every pier passed the compaction test with flying colors!