Fontana sits on deep alluvial fan deposits from the San Gabriel and San Bernardino Mountains. The soil profile here—interbedded sands, silts, and coarse gravels—demands a rigorous approach to tieback and rock anchor design. IBC Chapter 18 and ASTM D3966 set the baseline, but local groundwater depth and the city's rapid commercial expansion require additional scrutiny. We design active and passive anchors that transfer tensile loads into competent strata, typically below 15 to 25 feet, bypassing the loose upper layer. Before a single tendon is ordered, our team models bond zone capacity using actual subsurface data, not just textbook friction angles. For projects near the old Kaiser Steel mill area, where fill soils dominate, we often cross-check anchor performance with a CPT test to verify strength profiles before finalizing tendon length.
An anchor is only as reliable as the bond zone it’s grouted into. In Fontana’s stratified gravels, that means verifying capacity at every elevation.
