Steel Piling
Burton Waters
Aarsleff Piling demonstrated how adaptable and versatile their Swedish Banut self erecting leader piling rigs were installing different types of piles for the UK’s largest 140 acre inland marina development at Burton Waters a few miles west of Lincoln. One of our Banut 500 drop hammer leader rigs drove precast concrete and steel sheet piles on the project and only took a few minutes to convert from one pile type to another.
The steel sheet piles are an integral part of essential bank support and protection works in the 15 acre marina, while the precast concrete piles provide foundation support for some of the vast development’s residential properties. Main contractor Universal Construction Services, working for client and parent company Eastman Securities, designed and built the 140 acre residential, retail and leisure marina complex. The project contained over 200 houses, apartments, and lakeside cottages, most with private moorings. In addition there were two commercial basins with a chandlery, a hotel, conference centre, shops and other recreational facilities, including lakes for fishing and water sports.
The development just off the main A57 trunk road near Saxilby, backs onto the existing Fossdyke Navigation Channel. This links eastwards into the Brayford Pool in the centre of nearby Lincoln and into the River Witham, through Boston and out into The Wash and the North Sea. The Channel also provides another link to the North Sea westwards to the River Trent and into River Humber and its estuary.
Aarsleff Piling, supplied and installed 260 pairs of Larssen piles up to 8.5m long for the floodgate access channel and bank and quayside protection, which included driving piles on a tight radius curve, without the need of a guide frame or waling.
A further visit to the site required 87 pairs of 6.5m long Larssen steel sheet piles and the installation of 132 precast concrete 8m long piles, 200mm square. The same versatile and adaptable Banut rig drove both types of pile, which, with its quick release driving caps, was able to change over to suit the different piles in only a few minutes.
“The Banut is very adaptable and ideal for driving steel sheets, tubes, H beams, timber and precast concrete piles on a variety of small to large piling projects,” says Aarsleff piling manager Philip Chippindale. “We believe Aarsleff is the only piling company in the UK using Banut fixed leader rigs equipped with a hydraulic drop hammer for installing sheet piles. Many other contractors mainly use leader rigs with vibrators and have to pitch and drive each single pile in turn to full penetration. We pitch and initially pin the piles in singles then back drive in alternating pairs to achieve a high degree of accuracy and verticality. The Banut is also ideal for installing sheet piles on a radius as tight as 8m, without the need of a frame. Our in-house designed specialist driving caps can be changed in a matter of minutes to accommodate different types of pile, making the rig fast and cost effective for our clients.”
After Aarsleff’s first two visits UCS followed on to excavate and seal the 15 acre lake with a 500mm thick clay liner. The excavated spoil was used to raise the surrounding ground to site the houses and other buildings well above flood level.
“We are very pleased with Aarsleff Piling. They have been very co-operative and done an excellent job for us,” says UCS contracts director Peter Ingall.
