4 Rowlands Hill, Wimborne

This project involved a Continuous Flight Auger (CFA) pile installation for a new three storey residential development in the market town of Wimborne, Dorset. The work comprised of the installation of 63 piles, 350mm in diameter, to depths of up to 21.5m. This was completed with the company’s own Casagrande B125 CFA piling rig.

Bearing pile design was completed by our own directly employed design engineer, and checked by a director. The quantity of piles needed favoured a factor of safety of 3.0, (Euro Code 7), as opposed to a reduction taken with the expense of a static load testing regime. The programme constraint also made this the best approach.

The geology involved drilling through layers of soft clay, silt and gravel, with a relatively shallow water table, to achieve bearing in underlying stiff clay and mudstone. A full set of integrity tests were completed and confirmed no quality issues with the installed piles.

The work was completed in a one-week period of site activity, without incident or notable delays.