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University Challenge

One of Britain's oldest universities is getting a facelift with the help of some clever piling by May Gurney.

It may be a small site at only 40m2, but Memorial Court at Clare College - part of the University of Cambridge - is getting bigger facilities with a new study centre and accommodation wing in an £8.5m facelift.

The site is flanked on one side by the University Library, and to make the best use of the space available a secant wall is being built to support an underground 150-seater auditorium. In addition, site workers installed two different types of piles with a single rig to support the new buildings.

The basement lecture theatre will be 6m high (the equivalent of two typical storey heights) to accommodate the auditorium-style seating.

Rig operators have installed a continuous flight auger (CFA) secant piled wall around the 16m by 18m perimeter. This comprises 39 alternating hard and soft piles with each of the hard ones intersecting the adjacent soft piles. All are 600mm in diameter and at between 700mm and 900mm centres. The piles act as a retaining structure for when the excavation takes place and as the eventual walls of the basement. But they also have to cope with groundwater on site.

The piling work was complete on 18 September and the new facilities are planned to open in November 2008.