We have been helping designers and specifiers find the best solutions for their projects since 1988. EXTERNAL WORKS is an ESI.info brand.
Foundation solutions assist with construction of a new care home
Keller carried out innovative foundation solutions to assist with the construction of the new 3-storey, 60-bed Galleyford Care Home in Chelmsford. These included: facilitating shallow simply reinforced spread footings; utilising a smaller low headroom rig to minimise temporary work requirements; offering a low vibration methodology in a residential area
Click for full image
Foundation solutions from Keller assist with construction of a new care home in Chelmsford
Utilised a smaller low headroom rig to minimise temporary work requirements
Offered a low vibration methodology in a residential area
Challenge
The site was found to be underlain by some low-strength fill materials and the highly-weathered Lowestoft Formation. Due to the combination of these weak soils and the proposed loadings, which included about 1.5m of upfilling, a Vibro Stone Column solution could not be used for this project. The proposed solution needed to limit settlements to <25mm and 1:500 whilst offering a sufficient bearing capacity to keep the foundation widths at a sensible size.
Solution
A displacement RI ground improvement solution was adopted below the foundations. Keller selected a 300mm-diameter column installed into the top of the unweathered Lowestoft Deposits, so as to provide a bearing capacity of 150kN/m2 for simply reinforced shallow foundations.
All of the columns were successfully installed in just over a week, allowing Horizon Construction Ltd to follow on quickly with the foundation installation works.
