Skip to main content

Piling job at interchange

Specialist geotechnical contractors, Bachy Soletanche has started work on a new grade separated interchange on the A41 road in West Bromwich, West Midlands, England, for a Balfour Beatty/Birse joint venture.
February 17, 2012 Read time: 2 mins
Peri's VST System is being used on a bridge spanning the Sordo Valley in Portugal
Specialist geotechnical contractors, Bachy Soletanche has started work on a new grade separated interchange on the A41 road in West Bromwich, West Midlands, England, for a 1146 Balfour Beatty/1486 Birse joint venture.

Worth about e3 million, and expected to last 15 weeks, the project consists of heavy duty CFA (continuous flight auger) and cased CFA secant piling. [A continuous flight augering drill is used to excavate a hole and concrete is injected through a hollow shaft under pressure as the auger is extracted. This creates a continuous pile without ever leaving an open hole].

The hard/hard and hard/firm secant CFA piles are 600, 750 and 900mm diameter and up to 18.5m deep, and were designed by Sandwell Metropolitan Borough Council's engineer, Scott Wilson, and include reinforced primary (female) piles in the new overbridges wing walls.

1485 Bachy Soletanche's biggest rig, a BG40, is being used for the cased CFA secant piles with the remainder being installed by a CM70.

Once complete, the retaining walls will form the new underpass beneath the newly-aligned roundabout so as to improve traffic flow on the A41.

Paul Hodgson, business development manager at Bachy Soletanche, said: "This is our biggest job in the Midlands at the moment and it's crucial we stick to schedule so as little disruption occurs as possible. Different rigs will be used for the various stages."

For more information on companies in this article

Related Content

  • Balfour Beatty wins major UK road repair contracts
    February 3, 2016
    Balfour Beatty is now working on a seven year, €323.94 million (£245 million) highways maintenance contract in the UK. This package of works is for Coventry City Council, Solihull Metropolitan Borough Council and Warwickshire County Council. There is an option to extend the contract for a further three years. Balfour Beatty Living Places will work in partnership with the three Councils. This collaborative arrangement in the local authority highways market will provide a single source service provider acr
  • Norway’s massive Rogfast Tunnel project
    December 11, 2018
    The world's longest and deepest road tunnel is underway in western Norway - Adrian Greeman reports
  • Canadian air
    February 8, 2012
    Compressors from Atlas Copco are proving highly useful in highly diverse applications, on a bridge project and a quarry in Canada. Water ingress over 30 years has damaged a road bridge in Quebec City, Canada, deteriorating the concrete and breaking down the rubber expansion joints at both ends of the 150m long structure. City highway authority, Transportes Quebec, awarded local contracting company Inter-Structures the contract to replace the deteriorated concrete and fit new membrane seals. The bridge, clos
  • Crack infill system ideal reinstatement solution
    February 17, 2012
    Overnight repair work on a major English motorway has avoided the major traffic disruption and significantly increased road surfacing costs that would have occurred if left untreated.