Etruria Silent Piling

Our A500 Etruria Widening Scheme is progressing well, with installation of the retaining wall using a very “thoughtful” piling technique that is limiting disturbance to the local residents and travelling public.

Engineers from Highways England visited the site to see the Giken Supercrush pile installation technique which provides quiet and vibrationless “pushing” of the sheet piles into the rock.

Giken Supercrush piling is a further development of the vibrationless piling process and utilises an integral rock auger housed inside a casing to penetrate hard ground.

The press-in action is carried out while simultaneously extracting the auger.  This technique enables silent piling into rock and allows sheet piles to be designed to take significant vertical loads.

This technique was selected on our project not only because it was quiet and caused no vibration, but also because it eliminated the need for a separate machine to pre-auger the ground prior to sheet pile driving.

It also eliminated the need for a working platform as the piling rig is supported by the sheet piles; particularly beneficial when working adjacent to the very busy dual carriageway.