Kvaerner Construction’s special ground engineering expertise was recently called on for the construction of a multi-storey London hotel extension directly above a tube line.
Kvaerner Cementation Foundations (KCF), Kvaerner Construction’s piling and ground engineering specialist, has won the £1.5 million piling contract at the Stakis Metropole Hotel, Paddington, using its unique, patented CEMLOC system for installing plunged columns with exceptional accuracy.
Precision engineering is vitally important with a new 16-storey hotel building to be supported above and the twin tunnels of the Bakerloo line running some 20 metres below.
Foundation work started in the summer with the installation of a 220-metre perimeter retaining wall with 240 secant interlocking piles, employing Continuous Flight Auger (CFA) piling techniques.
KCF is three quarters of the way through the contract, awarded by John Laing Construction Ltd, and is in the process of installing 93 large diameter piles (up to 2.1 metres in diameter) with plunged columns. While some will extend up to 40 metres deep, others over the tube lines must not penetrate within six-metres of the tunnel tops and are therefore under-reamed with a maximum bell size of 4.5m in diameter.
The work was split into two phases. Phase one saw the completion of about half the secant walling and bearing piles allowing John Laing Construction to start on top-down construction with the bulk excavation for a two-level basement area and building the 16-storey structure above. Phase two is underway to complete the remaining portion of the wall and bearing piles.
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