Bachy Soletanche - Taking the plunge at Park Plaza Westminster
Bridge Hotel
It is not everyday that a leading ground
engineering firm has the opportunity to work in the renowned
surroundings of London’s Westminster. However, Bachy Soletanche
Limited (BSL) has been doing just that at the site of Park Plaza
Westminster Bridge Hotel. The geotechnical specialist completed the
five million pound piling package at the development in January,
which included the installation of plunge column bearing piles and a
secant piled wall.
The Park Plaza Westminster Bridge Hotel will have, without doubt,
one of the best scenic positions in Westminster located on the south
side of Westminster Bridge. In the shadow of landmark buildings such
as the Houses of Parliament and Big Ben, the aparthotel will provide
unrestricted and spectacular views to its guests.
The joint venture between Frogmore Property Co, Galliard Homes and
Park Plaza has established an innovative enterprise where investors
can buy one of the hotel rooms on the project’s completion.
Consequently, the project has a fast-track programme that has
dictated the construction process and the techniques used.
Jonathan Spyvee, project engineer for Bachy Soletanche Limited
explained:
“To enable this project to run on a tight programme, the project
manager, GCPM, has adopted the top-down method which requires the
early installation of the ground floor slab. With this in place,
work above and below the slab can continue simultaneously knocking
two months off the schedule. However, before the ground floor slab
can be put into place, a range of ground works had to be conducted
and BSL was awarded these advance works together with the piling
works contract.
We divided the contract into two main sections including the
installation of 140 bearing piles and the construction of a 260
linear metre secant piled wall around the perimeter of the site.”
The majority of the bearing piles incorporate plunge columns which
were specified by the client to support the ground floor slab, this
being possible as the steel column extends from the cut-off level of
the concrete pile at lower basement level to ground slab level.
The plunge column installation technique at first follows the
general piling process by boring out the core, placing the
reinforcement inside and then pouring the concrete into the pile.
With this complete, an adjustable steel frame is immediately lowered
into pile shaft and suspended from the top by the temporary steel
casing. The steel column is then fed through the frame and held
firmly into position whilst position and verticality are checked.
Finally, the column is embedded into the top of the pile concrete
leaving up to two metres of the column exposed above current ground
level. The column sizes range from 200 x 200mm up to 400 x 400mm
with varying lengths up to 20metres.
Jonathan Spyvee continued:
“It is extremely important to install the steel column accurately
down the centre of the pile. For this particular project, we had to
meet tolerances in the region of 10mm to ensure compatibility with
the follow-on works.
The construction of these plunge columns is relatively straight
forward, however the design included the installation of four jumbo
plunge columns, and to place each one of these correctly required
specially prepared plunging frames, meticulous planning and each
required a couple of days to construct.”
Specifically, the first day is taken to begin augering the 2.1metre
diameter pile to its final depth of 35metres and the second day is
used to place the massive 21metre, 37 tonne column, into the pile
using a similar process to the smaller plunge columns previously
described.
The four jumbo piles had to be specially commissioned due to their
huge non-standard size - two are 300 x 1,100mm and the other two are
500 x 800mm. With each weighing 37 tonne, these jumbo columns are
some of the heaviest plunge columns ever installed by BSL.
Jonathan Spyvee added:
“We left the installation of the jumbo plunge columns until last as
the logistics for getting them onto site and putting them into place
required as much space as possible. The columns were actually
delivered, on two separate occasions, via closed roads and using
police outriders, which demonstrates their enormity.
To install plunge columns of this size is something quite unusual,
but we put a lot of careful preparation into the design and
installation method in conjunction with the project manager.”
BSL has also constructed a secant piled wall which runs around the
perimeter of the site and forms the retaining wall for the
excavation creating the deep basement for the hotel. The wall was
split into two sections so different techniques could be used.
On the east side of the site, BSL used the classic Kelly/segmental
casing method with a large diameter heavy duty rotary rig as this
method has the strength to bore through the ground profile of made
ground, gravels and finally clay. For the secant piled retaining
wall on the opposite site boundary, BSL used the cased CFA secant
piling technique to construct the 750mm diameter piles.
Jonathan Spyvee concluded:
“Overall this ground engineering project has proved to be a varied
and interesting project and we are pleased with the final results.
By working very closely with the project manager and by having
enough flexibility and budget to make design changes when necessary,
the piling works have run on course ready for the future works to
continue apace.”
Email:
fiona@manifestcomms.co.uk
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