SPI Piling have been engaged as the nominated Piling Contractor of Choice! to design and install tubular piles as the foundations for a new switch house within this National Grid substation.
Not only were the piles to support the new building but the top of the piles were to be approximately 2m above ground level so it sat at a higher level, with 18nr tubes under the new switch building which were left 2.60m above ground level, to protect from flooding.
This meant our team on site worked very closely with our client to ensure the piles were installed to within extremely tight tolerances to make sure the steel frame on top fitted with the minimum of fuss. 34nr tubular piles were driven to form the 3nr structures within an existing electrical substation.
The very tight site also meant we were restricted to the size of plant we could use so sequencing of installation was important and being close to neighbouring properties we needed to do as much as possible to minimise any disturbances.
We used our new 35t excavator to pre-auger each pile position, drive the tubes as far as possible with our side grip vibrating hammer and then back drive the tubes to a final set with our own DX hydraulic drop hammer.
The fact that all 3nr items of plant fitted on to the same excavator meant we were able to complete the works on time and to budget and with zero incidents.