Lord Hill's Bridge

The Cross Rail tunnel boring machine was to commence it's drive at Lords Hill Bridge, passing directly underneath it.

In order to prevent damage to the north bridge abutment by the tunnelling machine, the whole of the ground beneath the bridge had to be replaced with a weak concrete by constructing interlocking 1200mm diameter piles to 13.0m within a headroom constraint of 5.1m.
 

In just 6 weeks, Martello re-designed and modified 2 of their MP5000 series rigs to meet the client's required start date, and to enable them to operate in 5.1m of headroom by manufacturing new short masts, multi-stage digging bars and very short digging tools.

The modified rigs operated problem free and completed the project ahead of schedule thereby mitigating the project of the potential for huge "Tunnel Boring Machine Delay Costs".
 

The mass concrete protection of the bridge abutment consisted of 418 No 1200, 900 & 600mm diameter piles 13m deep,  that were installed using the modified MP5000 rigs. 

The 56 No 900mm contiguous piles installed to form a portal structure on the East bound running tunnels. These were installed using the MP4000 rig with full depth B40 reinforcement in short lengths with coupled connections. 

Martello worked extended hours to deliver the works ahead of time and on budget.
 

Martello Piling have the culture, the creativity and the in-house capability to design and manufacture bespoke equipment to solve ground engineering problems which may not be possible with conventional piling equipment.