Standing tall at Manchester’s Chancery Place project
Leading geo-technical specialist, Bachy Soletanche Limited will complete a ‘high’ profile project at Chancery Place in Manchester by the end of January, providing a piling solution for the fourteen-storey, 9,802sq m development in the heart of the city.
In a £410,000 contract, Bachy Soletanche has provided piling and foundation work for the high-rise building that will provide premium office, retail and underground parking space – replacing the derelict 1960’s Scottish Provident building.
Rob Howarth, Contracts Manager, at Bachy Soletanche Limited commented:
“We were approached by the main contractor, John Sisk & Sons Limited, to provide a contiguous piled retaining wall for the underground parking areas, and foundation piling that would support the weight of the multi-storey building.”
The construction of the contiguous piled retaining wall involved a total of one hundred and forty-one continuous flight auger piles, each with a 600mm diameter, drilled to a maximum depth of nineteen metres and offering a maximum excavation depth of 12.5 metres. Larger bearing piles were also constructed using rotary bored piles to provide support foundations for the large-scale development, each with a diameter of 750mm and extending to a maximum depth of 16.5metres. The change from CFA to rotary was dictated by the very low cut-off levels of the bearing piles and the length of rock socket required for the very high pile loads.
Rob Howarth continued:
“The project had a strict six-week schedule for the contiguous wall and four weeks for the bearing piles, and the strict deadlines meant precise planning and programming was essential to ensure work was completed by the end of January, allowing the groundwork contractors to move in on time.’
“Besides the tight deadline, we also had to deal with a extremely restrictive site; only thirty-one metres across at its widest point. With a heavy duty piling rig and a sixty-five tonne crawler crane on site together with attendant excavators, concrete deliveries and muck-away lorries – the emphasis was again on careful and controlled programming to ensure the piling work ran smoothly.” He added.