After the summer’s “blog holiday” I am pleased put pen to paper again so to speak and report on our preparation for our headline marketing event; that is Ground Engineering’s Sixth Annual Basements and Underground Structures Conference; which is incredibly and rather worryingly less than a week away.
As main sponsors of the event, we are aiming to put on a good show, in particular we are busy finalising our 30 minute presentation slot along with our partners at Costain Skanska JV, and Norwegian companies Kynningsrud and Multiconsult whose ongoing projects we are featuring.
We’ll be looking at the top-down construction of the station box at Paddington; one of Crossrail’s key contracts and comparing this with the more traditional the open-cut sequence as used on the basement construction of the Oslo Barcode project. Oslo clay is very different to London clay so it should make for an interesting comparison, as both projects involve supporting long deflection critical excavations utilising a sequence of, installation, pre-stressing and subsequent removal of props as the dig progresses.
Below you can see a sneak preview of the presentation showing the sequence for the Barcode project. In this case, just as in the Paddington scheme, props are reused several times to gain highest efficiency and a more cost effective solution.
As with all inner city construction projects nowadays, both of these projects are being closely monitored for prop loads, pile deflections and movement in adjacent structures etc. and it will certainly be interesting to hear how the challenges of limiting ground movement were met in two very deep urban excavations with contrasting ground conditions and how we at Groundforce have played our part.
I for one will be particularly looking forward to hearing from Arne Eigerland from Norwegian consultants Multiconsult AS who will be recounting the problems needed to be overcome in digging deep holes adjacent to bridges in very soft Norwegian clay.
To add to the international flavour of the event, Peter Richardson of Amsterdam based Richardson Piling Solutions will be chairing the session on our behalf. I may even be dragged on to the platform myself to answer any questions relating to the use of our equipment.
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