Soil Mechanics Supports Development Team at New Wembley

Friday 30 April 2010

Client
The first stage of the redevelopment will see Quintain Estates and Development plc 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.

Challenge
Soil Mechanics challenge was to investigate the integrity of existing and new foundations and complete nine phases of site work on the 90 acre Wembley City scheme. A variety of drilling and testing needs were met for the assessment of man-made and natural strata.

Solution
The investigation covered a number of urban challenges that included 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, Standard Penetration Tests (SPT), seismic cone and piezocone. These were supported by a range of geotechnical and geoenvironmental laboratory tests including compaction, triaxial and effective stress, and included SD1 testing (for assessing the risk of attack on buried concrete from aggressive ground conditions).

Results
The results of the investigative work established the presence an  position of old foundations, other underground obstructions and redundant structures. For example, included in the brief was the investigation of large loading differences for piled foundations to be designed to control ground movements for a proposed basement parking structure.

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. These were used to examine chemical composition and to provide an assessment of the environmental impact.

"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."  David Crump - Construction Director, Quintain

 
Project Date: April 2007 to February 2008 (Fieldwork)

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