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Northern Powerhouse?

Pile Probing – Manchester

We like to feel  that we’re contributing to the Northern Powerhouse and this week saw us working in Manchester on a project to construct student accomodation in the city centre. Our role was to clear locations of buried obstructions prior to piling commencing.

We successfully cleared 30 locations to 8m depth in a single day – a total of over 250m linear metres of pile probing. With the piling rig arriving the following day, the result was a happy client.

The fact Manchester was enjoying its warmest day of the year so far was a pure coincidence, though it was a welcome surprise not to get wet*!

For more information or to get a quote for pile probing at your site, please contact Steven Partridge – 01296 739413

[* The editor used to live in Manchester]

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What TLC Can Achieve

Terrier Drill Rig

Our Terrier drill rig, Tinky, recently celebrated its sixteenth birthday. In that time it has had 2 new head gaskets, 15 calibrations, 22 oil changes and services, 2 new tyres, 2 new tracks, 1 rebuilt mast frame, 1 new radiator , 1 new weight guard and a new fan. We know that good maintenance is the key to keeping any machine working and we like to think we’ve done our Terrier proud. It has certainly paid us back.

It may be sixteen years old but last week it still managed to dynamically sample 25m of weathered sandstone to 5m depth with SPT tests every metre plus completing an additional four dynamic probes to competent bedrock at 9.5m and installing four gas monitoring wells to 1.5m. All this in two days including a round trip mobilidsation of over 300 miles. Hats off to Tinky.

We are looking for dynamic sampling operatives. If you think you fit the bill then give Angus Gale a call on 01296 739400 or email your CV to Angus Gale.

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Subadra Partner with River Thame Conservation Trust

River Thame Wetlands

River Thame Conservation Trust and Freshwater Habitats Trust, along with their partners Waddesdon Estate and the Environment Agency, are creating an exciting wetland mosaic on the floodplain of the River Thame, close to our offices in Stoke Mandeville.

They contacted us to ask for our help drilling boreholes and installing groundwater monitoring wells to investigate the underlying geology and hydrogeology of the site. After hearing about the positive impact that the project will have on the local wildlife, we offered to provide a drill crew for the day free of charge.

We know that worthwhile projects like these rely on the goodwill of local people and organisations to make them happen and we’re really happy to have been able to play our part. Despite the hailstones and mud (really, lots and lots of mud – they don’t call them wetlands for nothing) everyone had a worthwhile and fun day.

We look forward to visiting the new wetland when it’s been completed ….but perhaps we will wait until the weather has improved.

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Rapid ‘CBR’ Testing

Clegg Impact Hammer

Let’s face it, sometimes you just need CBR results fast. Really fast. Maybe you need to identify any soft spots in a piling mat or in a road sub-base before the compaction plant leaves site. Or – be honest – maybe you just forgot to get the required testing done in time. Either way, we have a solution for you. We can test your sub-base using our Clegg Impact Hammer, typically completing 80+ tests in a day with results available immediately. Although the CBR value measurements aren’t as accurate as those obtained from a conventional test, we reckon they are acceptable for about 90% of the enquiries we receive.

For further information please contact Steven Partridge – 01296 739413

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Airplanes Stopped Play

Another post discussing the joys of working at a busy airport. This time we were asked to advise on the allowable bearing capacity for a foundation to be installed at 2m depth, without either excavating a trial pit of drilling a borehole.

We opted to carry out a series of dynamic probes, using our lightweight terrier drill rig, along the line of excavation, using the data to calculate an equivalent SPT ‘N’value and thence an allowable bearing capacity. We were able to provide our client with results in real time, ensuuring there were no delays to the construction programme.

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What Did You Do Last Night?

Night Working

Maybe we are cynical but we usually reckon we can rely on the weather to be cold and raining, or even snowing, anytime we are asked to carry out sitework at night. So it made a pleasant change to find ourselves at the end of Runway 27R at Heathrow on a warm summer’s night last week. As a Heathrow Approved Contractor we’d been asked to carry out some urgent groundwater assessment work and because our staff and vehicles hold ‘access all areas’ passes for Heathrow, we were able to be on site quickly and with the minimum of fuss.

For more information regarding our site investigation and remediation capabilities at airports, please contact James Skinner – 01296 739411

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Pile Probing

Pile Probing – London

We were contacted by one of our regular clients with an urgent request to carry out pile probing at one of their sites in London. We were able to be on site the next day, using our Geoprobe rig to clear 55 pile locations to a depth of 4m, all before 3pm. To make matters even better, the sun shone all day.

For more information about our pile probing service please contact Duncan Eastland – 01296 739431

Contract Value: <£2k

 

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Why You Should Be Using A Qualified Driller

Drilling has tradionally been pretty poorly regulated. Light cable percussion rigs (more commonly known as shell and auger rigs) still dominate the UK drilling market. They are crude, simple to operate and provide low quality samples but they live on because they are relatively cheap.

One reason they are cheap is that their operators are unqualified. Drilling has been seen as a job not a career. But lack of proper training has led to a woeful safety record; it is rare to see a 40-something shell and auger driller who still has all his fingers intact.

The British Drilling Association (BDA) has been working hard for some time now to encourage clients and consultants to require drillers working for them to hold a professional qualification – in this case an NVQ in Land Drilling. All our drillers hold this qualification. Our latest trainee, Alex, completed his NVQ this week.

If you’d like to know that your drilling requirement is going to be fulfilled safely and professionally then we’d be love to talk to you. Please contact Angus Gale (Tel: 07748 358304) for more information.

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Draining Away

Soakway Test Pit

The pressure to building new housing seems to be constantly in the news these days. Developers working to meet this demand are increasingly finding that they are required to find sustainable methods for disposing of the rainwater from roofs and paved areas. The days when this could just be discharged to the municipal sewer are long gone. Instead, wherever possible, the water must be disposed of into the ground via soakaways or other similar ‘infiltration features’.

Designing these requires careful measurement of soil permeability. We offer a comprehensive range of testing methods, from hand-dug percolation tests for Sustainable Drainage Systems (SUDS – NHBC Chapter 5.3) to machine-dug test pits for full scale soakaway tests (BRE 365). If site access is limited we can even carry out the requisite testing in boreholes drilled as part of our geotechnical/environmental investigation of the site.

For more information please contact Steven Partridge – 01296 739413

 

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When is an SPT not an SPT?

SPT Calibration - 2
SPT Hammer Calibration

The answer is when it’s not calibrated.

The Standard Penetration Test, or SPT, has been the mainstay of geotechnical site investigations in the UK for decades. The test is simple, quick and cheap and it’s particularly suited to the light cable percussion drill rigs that are so widely used in the UK.

What isn’t generally appreciated is that even a low tech test such as this requires proper calibration in order to yield consistent, reliable results. In fact Eurocode 7 requires the SPT hammer to be calibrated annually. Unfortunately very few drilling contractors bother to do this and, in our experience, few consultants know that they should be asking for it. Given that results from out of spec hammers can vary by as much as 50%, we think this is something that should be given more attention.

We’ve put our money where our mouth is and now all our SPT hammers are correctly calibrated and all our drill rigs come with up to date LEAA inspection certificates. If you’d like to know more about our drilling capabilities please contact Angus Gale – 01296 739433.