This project involved the installation of four number micropiles in restricted access conditions in a suburb of Cork City. The Client had demolished about six metres of an internal gable wall to accommodate a new open plan kitchen / dining area. The structural engineer, working on behalf of the Client, had designed two number steel columns to transfer the new loads from the new RSJ to a new reinforced concrete ground beam. However, this resulted in new point loads of 260kN.
The design team had two options. The first was to break out a 150mm thick concrete floor and excavate down through about a metre of washed stone fill to construct large reinforced concrete pads to accommodate the new loads. This was deemed impracticable by the design team and a micropile supported ground beam was deemed the safest and most cost effective approach.
Substruck was asked to design and install the micropiles which needed to be installed within a specific time frame to ensure that the schedule was not compromised. Our restricted access plant worked an absolute treat again and we got the piles to within 200mm of each wall in an effort to reduce the protruding sections from the column.