| This was a contract awarded to Substruck Ltd. by Cork City Council at a property in Togher. Substruck Ltd. was required to investigate, design, construct and certify a scope of works to address foundation movement related cracking. Investigation works comprised of hydrostatic drain testing, CCTV drain surveying, trial holes, dynamic probing and windowless soil sampling. The drains were constructed of the original vitreous clay and were found to be in very poor condition. One section of the drainage was in fact not serviceable. Furthermore, a cross connection between the foul and surface water was also identified. The foundation works specification required a series of micropile supported reinforced concrete ground beams along the area of distress. The piles were designed and constructed to carry a Safe Working Load of 100kN in compression or 50kN in tension. Two nr micropiles tested by an independent specialist contractor was found to perform adequately under SWL*1 and SWL*1.5 where a settlement 2.2mm/1.9mm and 4.1/3.6 mm was recorded respectively. Part of the project also included full drainage replacement in the vicinity of the building. All drains were tested as per the requirements of Building Regulations Technical Guidance Documents H Drainage and Wastewater Disposal 2016 and any cross connections were addressed during the construction of the new drainage systems. |