10 August 2016, 09:45
The Battersea Power Station on the south bank of the Thames has been a well-known London landmark for a long time now. The former power plant supplied Britain's capital with energy until the beginning of the 1980s, but was then it was decommissioned. Today a modern, new urban district is growing around the empty industrial landmark. At the site several hundred thousand square meters of residential, office and commercial space are to be built. BAUER Technologies Ltd., the English subsidiary of BAUER Spezialtiefbau GmbH, has been contracted to execute the necessary specialist foundation engineering works under the main building.
In February, site mobilization began and test drilling operations were carried out. In June, the main works on the project began, which include production of approximately 600 foundation piles with a diameter of up to 2,000 millimeters and a depth of up to 60 meters. In addition, another 900 piles are required for a secant pile wall – and all this under difficult conditions. Since the work is taking place next to or underneath existing buildings, the heavy-duty rotary drilling rigs must operate in extremely tight spaces with severely limited access routes. The ground itself also contains challenges. Before the work could begin, significant concrete obstructions had to be removed, and the clayey London subsoil presented a deep scour feature in the area where work was going on. "It is both an extremely interesting and challenging project," said Martin Blower, Managing Director of Bauer Technologies. "We are very pleased to be a part of this prestigious project."
Source: BAUER Aktiengesellschaft; Bauer Group