The Amaravati Buddhist Community in Hertfordshire is in the process of a phased re-development of their Monastery. We have been working with Jigsaw on each of the three phases of the works, thus far.
Each plot has had the same challenges in the ground, with clay over chalk soil composition posing a risk of heave. To circumvent this risk, a piled foundation scheme was required. We designed our voided Comdeck system with piles that extend into the underlying structured chalk. As the raft is not ground bearing, the superstructure is isolated from future ground movement caused by shrinking and/or expanding clay.
An added benefit of this approach was to avoid any future movement caused by the nearby mature vegetation as our piled raft scheme allows the roots to grow without affecting the superstructure.
As this is a residential community, one of our primary focuses was causing as little disturbance to the occupants as possible. One of the benefits of Comdeck is that it requires less excavation than standard foundations and fewer materials. This reduced amount of heavy machinery and minimised material delivery, usually needed for developments of this nature, kept noise and general disturbance to an absolute minimum. Our site crews were also very mindful of their conduct on-site. Working quietly and respectfully, considerate of the monastic practices of the site.
Each of these projects has been completed successfully, on time and in budget.
