Jan 2010: OLE Piling North London Line

The OLE Piling Railway Infrastructure Project in North London is a sizable project. The project’s Principle Contractor, Carillion, contracted Aspin Foundations to design, supply and install 22 number 610 diameter piles on the North London Lines ranging between 6.6 metres and 10.5 metres long.

The works were complicated by all plant and materials having to be delivered to the Road Rail access point in Angel Lane through the Olympic Delivery Authority (ODA) site in East London, as it was necessary to go through security checks and comply with a strict delivery booking system.

All works were planned to be implemented over 3 weekends (28 hour possession working) and 1 week of midweek days (5 shifts Non Possession working.)

The original tender identified 10 foundations that could be piled from rail during possessions, 7 from the ODA site during midweek days and 5 where the piling equipment had to be off tracked.

Specially built off tracking ramps were constructed to enable the Colmar (Fambo) and Atlas (Movax) piling equipment to reach the position where the new foundations were required.

These were installed through the possessions whilst the piling rigs were working on more straight forward foundations.

To increase the complexity of the works, midweek working was then denied by the ODA and the number of foundations increased to 27, which required 17 foundations to be piled off-track.

The works took 5 number 28 hour weekends and 1 number 12 hour shift to complete. Military precision was required to deliver all the materials, plant and manpower through security at the ODA site at specific times.

Well done to the Project Manager (Martin Truman) and Engineer (Will Temperley). Another successful project.

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