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Educating Geo

May Gurney has recently completed a piling project to provide Bracknell College with the foundations for a solid education facility - and a temperate environment in which students' minds can flourish.

The £250k project comprised the installation of 150 load bearing 400mm diameter CFA piles and 190 450mm diameter geothermal piles to depths of 17m.

The geothermal piles are created using normal CFA construction methods - but with U tubes tied into the reinforcement cages that are used to strengthen the piles.

The tubes are then filled with water, which is pumped via a heating/cooling distribution unit provided by Geothermal International. The water temperature determines the temperature of the refrigerant, which in turn is used to either heat or cool the air pumped around the building.

The system works because at these depths ground temperature remains constant throughout the year - regardless of the above ground temperature.

"The works ran to schedule and budget, which was down to good performance by our site crew and a good working relationship with all those involved," said Mike Cowan, May Gurney's Area Manager.

May Gurney completed the piling works at the end of November 2007 and Morgan Ashurst are scheduled to complete the building works in April 2009.