Case Study: Permanent Retaining Wall, University of Kent

Permanent Retaining Wall, University of Kent

Sheet Piling (UK) Ltd have recently been appointed by Willmott Dixon Construction Ltd to provide various permanent sheet pile retaining walls as part of the £26 million ‘Academic Hub’ Building for the University of Kent.

Once completed the new academic facility will be home to the Kent Business School and School of Mathematics and Science. It will provide the university with over 8000 square meters of state-of-the-art learning and teaching facilities.

The works involved the construction of around 180.0 linear meters of permanent retaining walls around the new building.

Due to the location of the works and ground conditions, the section of works in close proximity to existing buildings and facilities were installed using a Giken Z Pile Press c/w high pressure water jetting in order to mitigate any noise and vibration caused by the construction works.

The remainder of the works where no such noise and vibration restrictions were in place was installed using a Telescopic Leader Rig c/w Vibratory Hammer.

In total 283No. Emirate Steel EZ18-630 sheet piles were installed on the project which were supplied from our own in-house stock of Emirates Steel Sheet Piles.

On this project the programme period required for installation of the sheet was critical to follow on trades and the overall build programme for the Main Contractor. Consequently all works was completed over a 3No. week period utilising multiple pile installation gangs to ensure the programme was achieved.

The installation works were completed by late June 2015 to the satisfaction of the Main Contractor and remainder of the Design Team.

Sheet Piling (UK) Ltd are a Tier 1 contractor to Willmott Dixon and have completed numerous similar projects over the last few years including the Hoe Valley, Leicester Food Park and Brentford Locks projects.