Case Study: M1 Junction 16-19 Smart Motorway

M1 Junction 16-19 Smart Motorway

Contract No:C1134
Client:Costain Galliford Try Joint Venture
Location:M1 Junction 16-19
Value:£970,000.00
Summary:Supply & Installation of Arcelor Mittal AZ section sheet piles for new SMART Motorway Improvement Scheme

Sheet Piling (UK) Ltd have recently completed a major sheet piling project at part of the M1 Junction 16-19 Smart Motorway Project.

Highways England (HE) announced back in July 2015 the names of three construction consortia and three design joint ventures that will deliver a £1.5billion programme of all-lane-running Smart Motorway Projects over the next 10 years.

The Smart Motorway Projects will add road space by converting hard shoulders to permanent running lanes with additional traffic monitoring, emergency refuge areas and variable message signs controlled from HE’s control centres.

Jacobs and Atkins were the design joint venture on the M1 Junction 16-19 project and the scheme was constructed by a Costain and GallifordTry Joint Venture (CGT JV).

Sheet Piling (UK) Ltd were approached by the CGT JV in March 2016 to provide technical, cost and programme assistance to the scheme.

Early discussions on the scheme involved developing workable solutions at each of the individual structure positions on piling platform requirements, temporary earthworks, trade contract coordination, sequencing, delivery requirements and programme durations.

Further, a detailed evaluation at each individual structure was undertaken on the optimum sheet pile section and installation methods, based on the historical ground investigation logs.

This resulted in a combination of pre-augering, vibratory sheet pile installation and hydraulic impact driving being carried out to suit the varying ground conditions.

Initially, the sheet piling works were programmed to be carried out during night shift working. As such, to avoid excessive downtime in the event of pile refusal during installation of the specified ‘King Sheet Pile Wall’, Sheet Piling (UK) Ltd in conjunction with CGT JV and Jacobs/Atkins developed a ‘Pile Refusal’ protocol flow chart to assist in works progressing within predetermined design criteria.

In total, approximately 1400Te of Arcelor Mittal ‘Z’ section sheet piles were installed in a combination of traditional sheet pile walls and ‘King Sheet Pile’ walls.

The works were completed using Sheet Piling (UK) Ltd’s extensive fleet of modern piling equipment including ABI and Bauer RTG Telescopic Leader Rigs and Sennebogen Telescopic Crawler Cranes.

The project also utilised a new double jaw clamp arrangement purchased from ABI Equipment Ltd specifically for the installation of pairs of ‘Z’ section sheet piles using ABI Telescopic Leader Rig Vibratory Hammers. The double jaw clamp provides approximately 30% additional energy into the driven pile and also a significant reduction in noise during pile installation.

The sheet pile installation works were successfully completed between June 2016 and February 2017 to the mutual benefit of all parties.

The M1 Junction 16-19 project is due for completion in December 2017 with an estimated final contract sum of £94million.