In April 2019, VolkerGround Engineering was awarded a contract to design and construct a contiguous bored piled wall into sandstone, in order to enable the construction of a Jacobean style theatre inspired by William Shakespeare, in Prescott, Merseyside.
The wall comprised of a series of 88no 750mm diameter reinforced rotary bored piles installed using our SR75 piling rig. The 87 piles bored up to 10.5m were used to form a retaining wall, running around the perimeter of the site for the construction of the theatre.
Understanding the logistics was key to the success of this scheme. We worked closely with Kier to develop a robust plan to take into consideration the congested site conditions in the busy town centre location.
Kier changed and maintained the access to allow the piling to progress without delay. During the project, the team faced challenging ground conditions, with the sandstone lying just below platform level. This made for hard boring from the start.
Towards the end of the project, we amended the piling sequence to enable extra piles to be constructed from the top level which resulted in a more efficient installation for the remaining piles.
This project was completed to programme and to the satisfaction of the client.