This residential development by Bloor Homes hosts 125 new homes on a former caravan park. The proposed scheme comprised of traditional pile and groundbeam foundations, with heave precautions. This was due to the site previously being populated by trees, which raised concerns over future ground movement.
Flynn Groundworks, who were engaged in a competitive tender, suspecting a more economical approach, reached out to us for an alternative solution.
Through a detailed examination of the Site Investigation by our in-house engineers, we concluded that the future heave risks were minimal and the heave precautions were not required. On this basis, we were able to omit heave precautions across the site, allowing us to offer our non-voided Housedeck piled raft as a more cost-effective alternative.
To gain approval to omit the heave precautions over the entire site, we liaised with the NHBC on behalf of our client.
The underlying ground conditions consisted of very soft Alluvial deposits to circa 20m overlying Mudstone. Due to the softness of these deposits, CFA piling was not viable, so we opted for precast piles, installed into the underlying Mudstone.
To capitalise on the performance of the pile depth we thickened the slab and reduced the pile numbers to less than the original ground beam scheme. This design was the most cost-effective solution for these undesirable ground conditions, passing on significant savings.
To ensure that we were offering our client the best value engineered solution possible, we paid close attention to the piling rig selection to ensure that the track pressures were as low as possible. Alongside additional near-surface plate load testing allowed us to reduce the piling mat thickness to 300mm (down from TBCmm), offering our client the most economical solution possible.
Through our value engineered and rationalised construction processes, we were able to pass on six figure savings to our client, increasing the viability of the project and help secure their bid.
“Working with Abbey Pynford on this scheme helped us offer a much more competitive bid and helped secure this project.”
Alfie Murdoch, Estimating Manager, Flynns Groundworks
“I was greatly impressed with the quality of Abbey Pynfords work on-site, which contributed to us receiving an ‘Outstanding’ on our NHBC Construction Quality Review”
Alex Kenny, Contracts Manager, Flynns Groundworks
“I was very impressed with Abbey Pynford’s value engineered approach on this project and look forward to working with them in the future.”
Tom Devenish, Senior Groundworks Surveyor, Bloor Homes
