Edinburgh reaching for the skies
Bachy Soletanche Limited is helping BAA Edinburgh Airport, one of the UK’s fastest growing airports, to continue its meteoric rise – providing a piling solution as part of the enabling works for its new £14m pier development, which will further enhance the airport’s capabilities and the passenger experience.
In a contract worth over £1.3million, the leading geotechnical specialist will have constructed 126 Large Diameter Auger (LDA) rotary-bored piles when work is complete. The piles are being constructed to both support the new pier and provide contiguous piled walls that will create a passage for a rail link to the airport, which has already been planned for the near future. The piles are up to 25 metres deep, with a diameter of 1050mm, and are being constructed by two Bachy Soletanche rigs that began work on site on December 12th last year.
Although the piling work is now in full flight, the project has taken longer than predicted to take off – following unexpected ground conditions underlying the site. In the initial design, boulder clay that characterises the area was thought to be approximately six metres deep, but once piling began it became clear that the boulder clay was in fact eight metres deep. The consequent redesign meant that segmented pile casings were required rather than singular full-length casings.
Lisa Ellis, Contract Manager at Bachy Soletanche explained:
“Following the redesign process, segmented casings up to four metres in length are now being combined to provide the desired depth for each pile. In these problematic ground conditions, there is a limit to the depth a singular casing can go, but the segmented casing system is now working perfectly for the project.”
The project is now running to the revised programme at full speed, with a smooth landing expected during March, allowing further construction work to take place on the pier extension.