Soil Mechanics Supports Development Team at New Wembley

Tuesday 13 May 2008

The final phase of an ongoing ground investigation contract has been awarded by Quintain Estates and Development plc to Soil Mechanics, completing a whole series of ground investigation contracts which the UK's leading ground investigation contractor has undertaken since April 2007. Eight phases of site work on the 90 acre Wembley City scheme have already been completed with all sites currently undergoing the final phase of post fieldwork monitoring.

In total, Soil Mechanics carried out a range of drilling techniques to investigate the integrity of both existing and new foundations for a mix of structures on the 85 acre site. The work covered a number of urban challenges that included several UXO desk studies, cable tool boreholes ranging in depth from 30 to 52 meters, rotary cored Geobore S Wireline boreholes to 50 meters depth and in situ tests using pressuremeters and SPTs, seismic cone and piezocone. These were supported by a range of geotechnical and geoenvironmental laboratory tests including SD1 (for assessing the risk to buried concrete), compaction, triaxial and effective stress.

The first stage of the redevelopment will see Quintain transform the site around the iconic Wembley stadium into one of the UK's largest residential, retail, leisure and entertainment destinations boasting a prestigious Hilton Hotel, up to 6.3 million sq ft of new building development to be used for offices, shops and the creation of up to 4,200 new homes, community facilities and a new public square.

Quintain's Construction Director David Crump said: "I'm delighted that we are a step closer in building the new Wembley City which will help support the wider regeneration of the area, boost the local economy and create jobs. The award of each contract phase and the work Soil Mechanics is about to complete are crucial to the process."

Soil Mechanics Associate Director, Pete Reading comments: "We are delighted to have won these contracts which have met a variety of drilling and testing needs for the assessment of both man-made and natural strata. It enabled us to investigate the presence and position of old foundations and other underground obstructions or redundant structures, as well as exploring the chemical composition of the soil. For example, included in our brief was the investigation of large loading differences for piled foundations to be designed to control ground movements for a proposed basement parking structure. Similarly, other techniques used across the whole site included cable percussive boreholes to investigate the London clay and determine the soil parameters for foundation design, whilst several investigation pits discovered the make-up of made ground and provided samples for contamination testing."

The regeneration project will attract visitors and stimulate new investment to the area.

<< back