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Plate Bearing Testing

To meet the needs of the increasing demand for offsite construction for modular structures, highlighted by the government’s awarding of £3bn modular schools framework, we have invested in another set of fully accredited plate bearing testing equipment for assessing the suitability of temporary foundations or siting crane outriggers.
 
Of course, for those larger projects, we can offer full geo-environmental investigations, topographic surveys, utility surveys, laboratory testing, infiltration testing and CBR testing, all using our own equipment.

For more information, please contact Steven Partridge – 01296 739413

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Back to School

We were recently appointed to complete Geo-Environmental Investigations at two new school sites, to be constructed using the latest modular construction methods.

Our investigation involved 100m of linear drilling, environmental and geotechnical laboratory testing, over 50m of dynamic probing, soakaway testing, trial pits, CBR tests, Plate Bearing Tests, Topographic surveys, CCTV surveys and utility surveys. All the site works were completed within 3 days and reports issued within 2 weeks.
Surely that gets an A*!

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Chilling Out at Heathrow

Terminal Four at Night

Working ‘airside’ at Heathrow Airport is always a challenge, but when our client contacted us requesting plate bearing testing of the ground prior to them lifting a new chiller refrigeration unit using a mobile crane at Terminal Four we were happy to help.

The only kind of chilling our engineer enjoyed was the cool breeze while he worked through the night to ensure our testing was completed safely, on time and on budget, allowing the aircraft stand to open in time for the first plane arrival.

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Somewhere Under The Rainbow….

Dynamic Sampling Rig
Dynamic Sampling in the Rain

……is our mini dynamic sampling rig! In fact, its photographed here having its oil checked during a day’s work at a site on the south coast.

The geotechnical survey, which comprised standard penetrations tests (SPTs), dynamic probing, CBR tests and plate bearing tests, was designed to allow the design of foundations for a leading supermarket chain’s new store.

The site had a history of industrial development so, not surprisingly, it was littered with large, buried concrete obstructions from previous structures (foundations, beams and piles). We will soon be returning to complete pile probing at each of the new pile locations to enable the augers of the piling machines to keep turning thus avoiding expensive standing time.

Hopefully it will have stopped raining by then…..and no, sadly, we didn’t find the pot of gold at the end of the rainbow.

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Mother’s Ruin – Piling Probing at Bombay Sapphire’s New Gin Distillery

The Bombay Spirits Company are building a new gin distillery and visitors’ centre on the site of an old paper mill in Laverstoke, Hampshire.
The mill is registered by English Heritage and is considered of significant historical importance; during the first half of the century the site held the license to print money for the Bank of England. Wherever possible existing buildings are being retained and restored to their former glory. However, the mill was first established on the site in the early 1700s so many of the buildings need some serious TLC before they can again become usable. This includes improvements to foundations in some cases.
Subadra were called in to assist in the redevelopment, Project Manta, as a specialist in ground conditions and foundations to carry out pile probing around the perimeter and inside of one of the old mill buildings located on the banks of the River Test, which flows through the centre of the site.
We probed 25 locations in a single day using one of our highly manoeuvrable tracked drilling rigs, which proved perfect for the job. We identified shallow obstructions at several locations, allowing the project engineers to revise their piling plan and ultimately reduce costs and delays to the foundation improvement works.

Gin Distillery

We then carried out plate bearing tests, prior to piling, to confirm the surface soils could provide a suitable platform for the piling rig.

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Plate Bearing Tests for Wind Turbines

Concrete Base for Turbine Tower

SSE Renewables, in partnership with the Port of Tilbury, is installing four wind turbines at Tilbury Port in Essex.  The project is currently under construction. Once complete, their wind power will provide 50% of the Port’s energy needs. But late on Wednesday the project ran into problems. No plate bearing tests had been carried out to assess the stability of the outriggers of the giant crane that would lift the turbine nacelle and blades into place. We were contacted at 1pm the following day and were on site within 2 hours. We completed plate bearing tests at each crane location and by the time we left site at 8.30pm the first crane was moving into position, the project back on track.

For more information or to arrange plate bearing testing, please contact Duncan Eastland Tel. 01296 739431

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What Do You Do on a Cold, Wet Saturday?

When one of our clients rang late in the week to ask if we could carry out some CBR testing on a motorway hard shoulder the next Saturday we should have checked the weather forecast before saying yes. Saturday saw high winds and torrential rain – but more importantly for our client, it also saw us complete the required CBR testing despite the weather conditions. Just for good measure we also carried out some Mackintosh probing at no additional cost.

Contract value <£1k

If you need CBR testing, Plate Bearing testing, dynamic probing or pile probing then please contact Duncan Eastland (Tel: 01296 739431).

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Is the Economy Starting to Improve?

Plate Bearing Test for Piling Rig Mat

OK we can’t really claim to be representative of the economy as a whole, but our recent workload suggests that construction activity is at last starting to pick up. In particular, our CBR and Plate Bearing teams have had their busiest month ever: in fact, they’ve been so busy that we have had to invest in more equipment to meet demand. We’re also seeing an upturn in demand for pile probing surveys which suggests that more constuction projects are getting into the ground. If you’d like to discuss your requirements for any of these services then please contact us here.

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CBR Testing for Highways

Our geotechnical site  teams have been kept busy this month carrying out in situ CBR testing for a major road development project in Essex. We have tested the density of the sub-base along the length of the highway extension, with each test accurately located using our Leica TotalStation surveying equipment.

Contract Value: <£10k.

For further information go to : CBR Testing or contact Duncan Eastland – 01296 739431