Cementation Skanska has successfully completed a major load test (MLT40) on a 900 mm temporary foundation pile (sacrificial test pile) at a new development on London’s South Bank. The achievement further demonstrates the team’s specialist expertise in high‑capacity pile testing. Watch the video here.
Over a two‑week period, the team pushed the sacrificial pile to its limits, carefully monitoring its behaviour using an extensive suite of instrumentation, including vibrating wire strain gauges, distributed fibre optic sensing, and a multi‑level extensometer. The test confirmed that the customer’s pile design would perform well in London Clay and Thanet Sand.
Following the load testing, the team went on to carry out a comprehensive programme of integrity testing on a proportion of the permanent piles, around 30 in total, using Cementation’s patented CemOptics system. Cemoptics is a thermal integrity profiling technique developed in-house which detects defects and imperfections in piles.
The data gathered from this project will help improve deep foundation and structural design for projects across London and beyond and influence future geotechnical design.
Full scale pile testing remains one of the most reliable ways to understand how foundations behave under load. The process involves applying large forces to the top of a pile and monitoring how it responds using sensitive instruments and controlled loading systems. Over the past 20 years, Cementation Skanska has carried out thousands of these tests.
Emma Haddow, Divisional Director, said: “Our teams use a range of test systems to suit different sites and pile sizes, from compact beams for tight urban spaces to modular systems for large diameter piles.
“With in-house steel fabrication and geotechnical specialists, they manage everything from equipment design to data analysis in one continuous workflow. This helps confirm design assumptions, improves understanding of soil-structure interaction and supports the development of more efficient foundations, especially in variable UK ground conditions.”
In 2022, Cementation Skanska introduced the 60 MN maintained load testing system (MLT60), the highest capacity modular system available in the UK. This was designed and fabricated in-house at our Bentley works facility. Developed over three years, it can be paired with different beam sizes and its modular design allows it to be transported and assembled across the country.
The ability to test at higher loads is increasingly important for major infrastructure projects and tall buildings, which rely on deep or large diameter piles. Testing at this scale gives engineers more accurate insight into ground behaviour and the distribution of the load across a pile as construction progresses. These results help refine designs, reduce unnecessary material use and improve confidence in the safety and performance of foundations.