Geotechnical completes tricky academy project

May Gurney Geotechnical has recently completed an eight-week £300,000 piling contract on the site of the new Folkestone Academy in Kent.

The government's new educational academies programme is spawning many new part publicly funded buildings. The Folkestone Academy is the result of a partnership between a local businessman and Kent County Council.

With a slope at one end, and within this a slip plane crossing the west end in a north-south direction, the 160m by 50m site was not straightforward.

While the site's stratum was known to be Gault Clay overlying Folkstone Beds, the possibility of unexploded ordnance meant that piling could not begin without probing.

May Gurney Project Manager, Mike Cowan, explained: "Because Folkestone was heavily bombed during both World Wars, and also shelled from the French coast in the Second, every pile cap position had to be probed. The probe goes into the centre of the pile cap position and detects in a 1.5m radius."

Engineers used two preliminary sacrificial anchor pile tests to confirm designs, and site workers used five working test piles to verify installation techniques.

When complete, the building promises to be architecturally spectacular, with a number of curves and other pleasing forms.

To read the full story, courtesy of Ground Engineering, click here.