Tom
Beta Return
You are the construction expert, so i'll believe you on this.
Would you happen to know of any pics of Diagon at around the same stage though? They had to do much of the same that they are doing with this. The lands are pretty similar when you break them down a bit. Who knows if they will be in real life though.
I don't have any documents or photos of Diagon. I also don't know what the make-up of the soil is at Uni. I do know that the soil in and around DAK is very poor, and has no structural integrity. Additionally, the buildings going in Pandora are EXTREMELY heavy (i.e. exerting extreme loads on the soil).
Thus, everywhere you see a small gray rectangle, there are a minimum of four auger-cast piles drilled down anywhere from 20-50' deep (if not more in some cases) to reach a suitable bearing point.
That's why we saw the funky looking cranes for many months - those were drilling rigs for the piles. THEN, once those were done, they could form and pour the "caps" on them, which are the little gray rectangles seen all over the property.