Solutions-driven Sheet Pile Specialist Offers Stability, Sustainability and Strategic Advantages
Sheet Piling (UK) Ltd has been demonstrating why it is the UK’s leading Sheet Pile Specialist within a range of exciting projects in 2022 and early 2023. Its approach has also, however, been intuitive and conscious of the pressures within the global supply chain, which are causing price fluctuations on many types of construction project.
In unstable economic times, Sheet Piling UK’s professional and long-term view of the global marketplace really pays dividends for clients seeking more control over both costs and supply of materials to site. Sheet Piling UK, as the exclusive strategic partner of Emirates Steel Arkan in the UK and Ireland, receives sizeable and regular shipments of stock, which continually replenish what is the largest stockholding of new and used steel sheet piles in the UK. It holds in stock 15000Te of new steel sheet piles; 5000Te of used sheet piles.
Stock is received and held securely at Immingham and drawn off by the sheet pile specialist when required, ensuring materials can reach any project in a timely fashion and are not subjected to global shipping delays or political situations. As important, is the fact that this delivers greater control over price inflation – a key factor for many projects.
Coupled with this are the skills of an in-house design team that can apply expertise, accrued over more than 25 years by Sheet Piling UK, to any project. Sheet Piling UK’s projects span rail infrastructure improvements (specifically currently HS2), reservoir dam repairs, general construction, marine infrastructure reinforcement and repair, flood mitigation around inland waterways, highways widening and infrastructure works, and coastal erosion solutions.
Having been known as a pioneer of silent and vibrationless piling and the ‘Silent Piling Partner’, Sheet Piling UK continues to deliver as environmentally friendly a piling solution as is possible, in those terrains in which silent and vibrationless piling, using a pressing-in method, is a possibility.
It has, however, also pioneered long-reach sheet piling, having a patent on a unique long-reach ABI telescopic leader rig, first launched in October 2018. The two long-reach rigs in its fleet have slashed many projects’ costs, by removing the need to build temporary platforms and access structures, just to reach the pile line. With a reach three metres longer than any other rig, they can typically install sheet piles from an existing infrastructure base, removing all the costs and project delays associated with temporary works.
The company is ever-mindful of the need to reduce the carbon footprint of sheet pile works, as highlighted in a project carried out on behalf of United Utilities, at the Chipping Waste Water Treatment Works. Here, Sheet Piling UK constructed numerous sheet pile cofferdams, to act as temporary protection for workers constructing new detention tanks, humus tanks and other structures required during the facility’s upgrade.
As other works were also taking place on site, phasing of the installation and extraction of the cofferdams was recognised as an option, which led Sheet Piling UK to suggest the use of temporary steel sheet piles, to be installed and extracted multiple times on the same site. This not only created significant cost savings but also greatly reduced the environmental footprint of the works.
By tapping into the resilience of steel sheet piles, and their reusability, Sheet Piling UK was able to use piles with an embodied carbon content of around 60kg per tonne, rather than new steel sheet piles with 1700kg of carbon.
Work in Chipping will continue until November 2023, having commenced in September 2022. In total, around 200 Te of used sheet piles will have been deployed, at project completion.
Sheet Piling UK is also regarded as the leading expert in the field of steel sheet pile installation for reservoir embankment remediation, with its most recent project in this area of its expertise involving embankment reinforcement at the King George V reservoir near Chingford.
The sheet pile specialist has again worked alongside MHW (UK), now part of the Stantec Group, and is installing a remedial sheet pile cut-off wall within the reservoir embankment’s core. A total of 275 Arcelor Mittal PU32 steel sheet piles, 15 metres in length, are being installed into the underlying strata of London Clay, which sits beneath Puddle Clay. For stability, a minimum of 1.5m of each sheet pile’s length needs to be installed.
The methodology here was determined by a Willowstick survey, which detected threats to the core’s stability due to water seepage. To enhance the permeability of the steel sheet pile solution, Sheet Piling UK has applied Wadit clutch sealant, prior to sheet pile driving.
All plant has been lifted into site by a crane based at the toe of the embankment and piles have been pressed in, to minimise any damage to the already fragile structure. Verification of the verticality of the installed piles has been achieved using a bespoke instrumentation device, thus ensuring central penetration into the Puddle Clay core and achievement of required and specified tolerances.
Recognition of Sheet Piling UK’s role within highway infrastructure has come through the company being selected as one of the very first contractors to have access to the new National Highways Productivity Application. Sheet Piling UK crews are using the new App to record progress on a £49.8m highway improvements scheme, between the M621’s junctions 1 and 7.
The App is focused on generating greater productivity for Tier-1 contractors and the construction supply chain. It measured progress, whilst Sheet Piling UK carried out sheet pile installation at seven different M621 locations, providing permanent earth retention support for various new structural assets. These included highway retaining walls, gantry bases for gantry-mounted signals and communication bases.
The works required the installation of around 450 Te of Emirates Steel Arkan Z-section EZ36-700 steel sheet sections, in Grade S430GP steel, all drawn from Sheet Piling UK’s stocks. By using the long-reach rig on this project, there was a speedy delivery of the required works and no delays, despite access restrictions. The amount of night-time working required was minimised by use of the unique rig and costs were contained, by ensuring speedy delivery of the required sheet pile installation works. The works were completed within six weeks, to the satisfaction of both National Highways and Keltbray Infrastructure, who appointed Sheet Piling UK.
The sheet pile specialist continues to innovate, utilising all of the skills, assets and business planning advantages in its arsenal. After 25 years at the top of its game, it remains a company that looks forward, not back, in a continuous attempt to do things better, deliver key benefits to clients and minimise impacts on the environment and local communities around construction sites.
- Ends -NOTES TO EDITORS
Sheet Piling (UK) Limited is one of the UK's leading piling contractors. Owning and operating a comprehensive range of specialist piling equipment Sheet Piling (UK) Ltd also carry extensive stocks of new and used piles enabling rapid reaction to any urgent requirements or emergency situations.