Piling, Retaining Walls and Ground Improvement from Eco Foundations

We have recently completed a king post retaining wall alongside a railway line in Roade, Northampton for developer Taylor Wimpey.

The soil conditions included Blisworth Limestone which is a very hard material requiring highly specialised drilling equipment in order to install the king posts, but within the constraints of the proximity of the railway line.

Originally designed by the clients Engineer's as sheet piles which couldn't be driven in the soil conditions Eco Foundations were able to design and offer a solution to the client resulting in the successful construction of 70 linear metres of retaining wall, with a retained height of 2.4 m.

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Approximately 100 m of retaining wall has recently been installed in Putney, south west London for a development using soil mixing techniques.

The soils were predominately dense gravels which are perfect for the triple auger soil mixing system we offer, and the great advantage to the client was the proximity of the existing boundary wall that the rig can work within, to maximise the amount of basement available for the development.

Pictured here is the soil mixed wall, after the dig. The client chose to excavate the wall back to the width of the I beams to further increase the size of his basement. See how close the wall is to the existing brick wall which was left indisturbed by this silent, vibrationless and eco friendly system. No concrete was brought to site and no arisings needed to be disposed of, as all of the host soils are mixed with cement slurry to form the temporary structure.

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We are currently installing 1500 large diameter stone columns for a housing development in Stockton on Tees, Teeside. Half of the columns are 500 mm in diameter driven to 10 m through very hard soils to stabilise a slip circle on an embankment. The remaining columns are 350 mm in diameter and are being installed to 8 m to form the foundations for houses to be built on.

The columns are being installed using one of our powerful RTG RG16T telescopic leader rigs with 105 tons resonance free variable moment vibrator, without the need for pre augering.

The design calls for the first 4 m of the column to be filled with a lean mix concrete and the remaining 6 m with pure stone, which is supplied from recycled aggregates on site.

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Eco Foundations have just completed a contract for Collmart Growers to install 250 VCC piles of 400 mm diameter to a depth of 10 m for a new Onion Warehouse nr Peterborough in Cambridgeshire.

All of the piles are steel reinforced and half of them have enlarged heads to 900 mm for improved load transfer from the concrete slab.

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As the song goes “Winding your way down on Baker Street, light in your head and dead on your feet.  Well another crazy day” … in the exciting world of Eco Foundations Limited.

Eco have just completed a virtually silent and vibration-free steel pile-pressing contract for McAleer and Rushe Limited, at 2-14 Baker Street, London.  The contract was awarded to the piling specialist due to the innovative piling solution offered to the Northern Irish contractor.

 The project consisted of an 18m run of sheet piles to temporarily retain up to about 2.8m whilst the principle contractor excavated the site for a new basement.  As with many city centre sites, the retaining wall was positioned immediately adjacent to the edge of the site.  Due to other site operations Eco was only given a working area of 20m by 6m in which to work.   The small working area, together with an existing lamp-post just 150mm from the face of the piles made piling plant selection the main criterion for awarding the sub-contract.
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Eco Foundations are currently involved in a contract for S Dudley & Sons to install approximately 650 VCC piles of 400 mm diameter to depths between 9 m and 14 m for a new Tesco Store in Pontardulais, South Wales.

All of the piles are steel reinforced to withstand both tension and lateral loads, and half of them have enlarged heads to 900 mm for improved load transfer from the concrete slab.

The piles are being installed using an RTG RG16T telescopic leader rig with 105 tons resonance free variable moment vibrator. The highly powerful rig is capable of going through very hard soils with N values of up to 40 and still obtain very high outputs enabling us to provide a competitively priced product when compared to driven cast in situ or CFA piling.

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Eco Foundations' pioneering new deep soil mixing ground improvement technique has once again been in action. This time for a retail park development in Prestatyn where soil mixed columns of 1500 mm in diameter have been installed through soft soils up to 8 m deep. (The system can be used to treat soft ground up to 24 m in depth).

The soil mixed columns were installed through soft silts, alluvial deposits, soft clays and peat and founded on  sand using our in house designed innovative twin paddle soil mixing system attached to a 65 tons RTG RG19T telescopic leader rig with double rotary head.

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We recently completed a project in Canterbury, Kent for Cardy Construction, at the Beaney Institute right beside the famous Canterbury Cathedral. As a result silent and vibrationless sheet piling was a site requirement so Eco Foundations used one of their Giken UP150 Silent Pilers to do the job.  read more...

Eco Foundations are once again pioneering new ideas in ground improvement. For the first time in the British Isles soil mixed columns of up to 2.00 metres in diameter have been installed up to 20 m deep.

The columns were installed through very soft silts, soft clays and founding on medium dense gravels using our innovative twin paddle soil mixing system attached to a 100 tons RTG RG25S fixed leader rig with double rotary head.

Cement slurry is pumped from a mixing plant through the centre tube of the auger during the downward soil mixing process and again during the extraction soil mixing process. This results in an extremely homogeneous mix of the host soils together with the cement binder. The amount of slurry being pumped into the column is computer controlled by the rig operator and a full print out is supplied to the client as part of the QA process.

There are no pile arisings resulting in cost savings as there is nothing to take off site, and there are fewer lorry movements as the only imported product in the process is cement which is brought in bulk tankers, unlike traditional piling methods which rely on concrete delivered in small quantities via truck mixers.

The columns were installed in a grid pattern and topped with a soil mixed platform which the foundation slab is cast on top of.

 

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A contract to install a king post retaining wall for flood defences with concrete panels has recently been completed for JN Bentley in Sheffield, South Yorkshire.

The king posts were installed by a telescopic crawler crane into 600 mm and 750 mm diameter holes drilled through very hard mudstone with a high torque CFA piling rig. Access was extremely restricted as we were working along a narrow platform between the river and a building.

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500 linear metres of 7 m deep cut off wall has recently been installed for the Environment Agency at Goole using soil mixing technology. The soil mixing involved the use of a binder to create an impermeable cut off wall to stop the flow of water through the flood defence embankment during times of flooding.

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Eco Foundations recently completed a contract for Dawnus Construction to install approximately 1000 VCC piles of 350 mm diameter to a depth of 9 m for a new recycling centre in Rhyl, North Wales.

The piles were installed using an RTG RG19T telescopic leader rig with 125 tons resonance free variable moment vibrator. The highly powerful rig was able to obtain outputs of in excess of 80 piles per day resulting in a very competitively priced project when compared to driven cast in situ or CFA piling.

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A contract to install a king post retaining wall with concrete panels has recently been completed for Beale Homes in Willerby, East Yorkshire.

The king posts were installed by a mini crane into 600 mm diameter holes drilled through heavy chalk with a compact CFA piling rig. The small crane and rig combination was chosen due to the restricted access nature of the site.

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During September 2009 soil mixing provided a successful solution to British Waterways at the Shropshire Union Canal in Shebdon on the Staffordshire - Shropshire border. The canal had been leaking for many years and even with the introduction of sheet piles on both sides the water was not able to be stopped from dissipating through the canal bed and out the sides of the embankment. Eco Foundations were able to respond immediately to the emergency situation utilising it's mass soil mixing rig to solidify the base of the canal into a clay-like substance utilising a cement / bentonite binder.  read more...

Flood defence retaining walls and CFA bearing piles installed in Carlisle, Cumbria as part of flood alleviation scheme on behalf of the Environment Agency.

As you can see from the photo the access to the site was extremely restricted so we selected a CZM EM600 compact CFA piling rig to install the majority of the piles for the flood defence retaining walls and the CFA bearing piles.

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King post retaining wall and CFA foundation piles installed in courtyard of building in London as part of extension works for a listed building. The access to and within the site was extremely restricted so we selected a CZM EM600 compact CFA piling rig to carry out the works. This CFA piling rig was initially used to bore the holes required for the kingposts to be installed to create the retaining wall, and then moved onto install 450 mm diameter CFA foundation piles to 8 m depth throughout the site as required.  read more...

Eco Foundations have recently installed a sheet piled retaining wall in the Gloucestershire village of Birdlip nr Cheltenham. The sheet piles were driven using a telescopic leader rig to a depth of 9 m for a retained height of 6 m utilising ground anchors installed at an angle of 45 degrees.  read more...

Case study of recent and ongoing deep soil mixing project at Caister-on-Sea, Norfolk in pdf format for download. Includes technical information, drawings, photos and full details of this innovative and sustainable ground improvement contract.  read more...

Eco Foundations installs King Post Retaining Wall in Huthwaite, Nottinghamshire for client PDR Construction. The H piles were concreted into 600 mm diameter holes 7 m deep through Mudstone for a retained height of 3 m using a high powered CFA piling rig.  read more...

Eco Foundations install retaining walls for new Mosque at Upon Park, London. Two methods of construction are being utilised. A contiguous bored pile wall is being installed using a high powered CFA piling rig, 450 mm piles are being drilled to a depth of 17.5 m. When these walls are completed a telescopic leader rig with double rotary head will install 550 mm diameter hard / hard secant piles to the same depth to construct a water-tight load bearing secant wall.  read more...

Eco Foundations have just completed a prestigous contract at Canary Wharf in London for a new sub-station being constructed. A total of 80 CFA foundation piles of 450 mm diameter were drilled to depths of up to 20 m through Thanet Sands.  read more...