Skip to main content

GEWI piles for Blankenburg Connection

BAUER Funderingstechniek is installing GEWI micropiles with threads as part of Rotterdam’s new 4km-long A24 highway that includes two tunnels under the Scheur River
June 17, 2020 Read time: 2 mins
BAUER is installing the deepest GEWI piles in the Netherlands to date

The work by BAUER Funderingstechniek - the Dutch subsidiary of German parent firm BAUER Spezialtiefbau - is for the Blankeburgverbinding (Blankenburg Connection) tunnel project west of the city between the A15 and A20 highways.

Rotterdam, with a population of around 650,000, is the second largest city in the Netherlands and Europe's largest seaport, making it an important freight transport hub. The Blankenburg Connection will relieve truck and general traffic congestion.

BAUER has been delivering GEWI material to the site since July 2019 and by May is due to have installed 4,500 piles. But preliminary pile load tests were conducted in 2018 to investigate the primary friction properties of the three soil strata at the site. Soft clay, followed by firm clay and medium-dense to dense layers of sand were detected down to a depth of up to 20m.

The design of the GEWI piles for the tunnel ramps was adjusted based on the results of the pile load tests. Installation of the pile foundation for the southern ramp of the future 30m-deep Maas Delta Tunnel began last summer.

"In total, 11 teams with 11 KLEMM KR 806 rigs are currently being used in the joint project with our partner De Vries Titan," said Maarten Daalmeijer, project manager at BAUER Funderingstechniek. "This way we are sure to keep to the tight schedule.”

BAUER is installing the deepest GEWI piles in the Netherlands to date. Penetration of 64m below the NAP (Normaal Amserdams Peil - Amsterdam Ordnance Datum) -  a height reference point for the Amsterdam water level.

For more information on companies in this article

Related Content

  • Sealing the world's longest tunnel
    March 21, 2012
    Infrastructure construction in China is booming as never before, but sealing the world’s longest immersed tunnel is a technically complex engineering project. The impressive Hong Kong-Zhuhai-Macau fixed link project in China includes an immersed tunnel with a record-breaking length of almost 7km. In 2009 construction began on a project to link the island of Hong Kong with Macau and the mainland Chinese city of Zhuhai. The link will be one of the region’s most technically complex engineering projects ever.
  • Fast, cost-effective road stabilisation
    February 15, 2012
    The Kivikko industrial area in Finland, which is owned by the City of Helsinki, has expanded gradually over the years and it has expanded again with the new stabilised area now about 3.5hectares. The ALLU equipment and system was used to stabilise Kivikko for the first time in 2001, and the latest job started in June 2010 with the stabilisation work completed by mid-December 2010. [The ALLU Stabilisation System is a Finnish invention that provides a fast, cost-effective and environmental-friendly working
  • A new Indian cable-stayed bridge will improve transport connections
    March 2, 2015
    A major new cable-stayed bridge is being constructed in India - Partha Bratim Basistha reports. In India the construction of a major cable-stayed bridge is underway that will boost connections from capital Delhi to its surrounding areas. The bridge is being built in a bid to ease growing interstate traffic movement between Delhi and the surrounding North Indian states of Punjab, Uttar Pradesh, Haryana and Himachal Pradesh. Named Signature Bridge, this is a landmark structure due to its design aesthetics and
  • Bauer’s BG 30, part of the rig manufacturer’s ValueLine platform
    March 7, 2016
    Bauer Maschinen is presenting a new generation of its ValueLine, a medium-sized platform range for bored piles with a diameter of up to 2.5m and a drilling depth of up to 70m. The platform range includes the BG 26 as the lowest priced-model and the larger version, the BG 30. The core element of the medium-sized platform range is the joint BT base carrier, which was entirely designed and constructed by Bauer. The modern and highly functional support does not just score points for its high safety standa