Despite battling against the unforgiving Scottish weather, Bachy Soletanche has started piling at the Scottish Exhibition and Conference Centre (SECC) in Glasgow in preparation for a new Multi-Storey Car Park.

Known to be a potentially problematic site due to the positioning over a former dock that was filled in with unknown matter during the 1950s, main contractor SCC, Design Build Contractor, has employed the piling and ground-engineering specialists to install the piles during the seven week £750k contract.

With half of the car park site over the in-filled former dock, and with the made ground within the dock extending to 16m below ground level, Bachy Soletanche included the removal of all obstructions in its scope of work.

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The CM120 piling rig initially probed the in-filled dock area to determine the extent of the unknown obstructions and verify if the ground conditions were suitable for CFA piling. Unfortunately the top few metres were too unstable to install CFA piles without using temporary casing within the top 10m. Instead, the BG28/36 was mobilised to install Bauer casing prior to the CM120 installing the piles through it.

The CFA piles within the dock were installed with 880mm o/d Bauer Casing along with a 750mm CFA auger, reaching to a maximum depth of 23m, and a rock socket in the sandstone. The piles outside of the dock are CFA piles of 600mm and 750mm.

Chris Wallbank, Contracts Manager at Bachy Soletanche, comments: "We knew that this project would throw up a few challenges but we have had a really positive start. The SECC car park piling certainly requires substantial technical knowledge, so we are pleased to be able to contribute our experience and expertise to the work. Despite the worst of the wet weather, we are very much on target for the seven week completion deadline."

The next stages of the project, scheduled to begin after the Christmas period, include the piling for a new LinkBridge to connect the Arena and multi-story car park.

(GK)