PILING THE GATEWAY TO EUROPE Howard Roscoe, Cementation Foundations Skanska Ltd, Maple Cross, Rickmansworth, Hertfordshire ‘Adam Chodorowski, Rall Link Engineering, London Paul Witcher, Gementation Foundations Skanska Ltd, Maple Cross, Rickmansworth, Hertfordshire / Linking Ashford international Staton to the new Channel Tunnel Ral Link requied over 6000 folary bored and CFA (continuous fight auger) plles to form tunnel wells end viaduct foundations and to support overbridges and lrackside bariors... Much ofthe work Was carted out close tothe exsting rllvay infrastructure. Plunged eclurmns were used to manta tts ‘lows over the tunnel site during construction. The reeulls of an extonsive programme of vertical and lateral load teste on bored and GFA ples In heavily overcensalidated Weald Clay ‘are compared ilustrate the relative importance of stress relief and of prolonged exposure 10 bentonite. The completion én scheduie ofthis major pling and ground engineering contract (Value £20 millon) demonstrates that collaborative working In partnorship produced cost efectve solutions to series of challenging techricel and logical problem, ‘THE ASHFORD TUNNELS CONTRACT Ashford, Kent lies strategically astride the now Channel ‘Tunnal Rall Link and is rapidly developing as the centro for new businoss with a European focus. Key to the town's development is the International Siation providing rapid connection by Eurostar to continental destinations, Contract 480 (Ashford Tunnels) links the Station to the new high speod track and was the ‘ergost and most cfitcal of the contracts that together make up Section 1 ‘of the Channel Tunnot Rail Link (CTRL). The contract was for the construction of 16.2 km of high spged track and included 2 major structures to accommodate. tho ‘existing road and rail notwork in conlral Ashford, 89 Figure 1. These are the 1.8 km of bored pile earth relaining structures that comprise the cut and cover {unnels and their approaches and the 1.4 km vieduet that ‘orcssas the floodplain of the River Stour immodiately to tho east of Ashford Intemational Station, ‘The piling and ground engineering works totalled £80 nnilion in vatuo and Is believed to be tho biggest such ‘contract undertaken in U.K. Comentation Foundations ‘Skanska complotod tho piling fo echedulo over a period of 30 months using a fiset of up to 7 large diametor rotary and continuous fight auger rigs at any one time. ‘The contract also included piled foundations for 12 road nterchange Intomatonal Raliisy.oncon 4 Trak Trak Cutand Gover Gutand Cover land pedestrian bridges, vehicle and noise barrore and relaining walls throughout tho 14.4km longth of the contract bringing the total number of piles to just over 5,000. The ground engineering elements of the work amounted to £ 1.2 milion in value, . They Included soll nails and multrstrand anchors to provide temporary support to out slopes and retsining walls. Sand drainé were installed to eccelerate drainage during tunnel construction. ‘The piling wae carried out in close proximity to @ working railway whilst maintaining existing roads and railway traffic, This called for stringent safety requirements and Careful planning to protect the existing lines and the travelling publle, Cut and Cover Tun ‘The route pesses ln tunnel beneath the Chant Rosd Interchange, tho existing Weidstone Ralivay and the ew chord lines serving Ashford international Station before emerging at Beavor Road Bridgo, The more ‘wooterly of the tunnels fs 670 m long and carries 4 tracks (See Figure 2). The remmalnder of the cut and cover Sseotion carrles 2 tracks. Roscoe and Twine (2001) give {urthor dotals of tho tunnel etructures, ~ River Canterbury ‘Ashford im Canterbury] Down: 20 Gott Cette) Pogson ie” Soon Welton Beavér Bre ‘Chart Roa Staion Viagact ” Viegust Viaduct 1 2 3 FP"n60 400 600 B00" 7,000 ‘Scale (metres) Figure 1 -Lovaton Pian905 x 305 x 198k9 Universal Columns Fing) Ground Level ‘900mm diamotor bored 1 Figure 2 - Cross Soston of Advance Box (Fender scheme) ‘The cut and cover structures required a tolal of 2,985 rotary bored piles constructed using bentonite slurry 10 stabilso the bores during construction. Pilo diameters ranged from 900mm to 1350 mm, The length of the piles forming the contiguous walls increases with tunnel depth from {4m to 29m. Careful setting out and checking of pile positions enabiod the ples to be positioned within tolerance without the exponso of guido walle. Central piles up to 44mm in length provided central support for the roofs of the 4-track tunnel. In two cases pllas supported the roof during top down excavations. At Chart Road ‘Advance Box plunged columns were installed and in the Maidstone Railway Box the piles were conorated to high level to act as temporary columns. Viadu ‘The Viaduct is locatod to the East of Ashford International Station and cerries the CTRL ines ever the ‘existing Canterbury Line, the new Downchord link and the rivers East Stour and Great Stour. The vaduct Is ddosigned as three structures separated by bridges at the rall crossings. ‘The viaduct foundations resist high braking forces from heavy Eurostar trains. Stil xed plers at intervals along the length of the structure rosist the latoral loads with Intermediato ree" piers carrying vertical loading oniy... It was originally intended to use rotary piles throughout but 8 value engineering workshop involving ciant Rail Link Engineering (ALE), . main contrgctor Skanska Construction and Comentation Foundations proposed the use of contiguous fight auger (CFA) piles wherever Possible. Costings based on the use of 800mm diameter CFA piles offered considerable schedule gains and potential savings of £750,000 for the free piers and £450,000 forthe fixed piers. Fiold trials and vertical and lateral load taste In suppor of these proposals were put in hand as described below. Design “development continued in parallel. The foundations had been required to limit fatoral movement at the top of the viaduct piers to 10mm, This was reduced 19 Smm In order to provent any possibilty of bucking the continuously welded rails. This change. slgniicanly afected the ad foundation. twas nat posse o make ay red inplo damoters and somo ofthe ples vows erense ameter to 1800 mm. Heavy ‘eineread eae grund beams were Inteduced to share llr Botweon the xed plore and the adacent ple tow dedlgheted 'somitxed Tho cost of theso addtional. requremonts ‘ogatod tho potential cost savings but a. sgn reduction of about 12 wooks in schedule was avalay, The fold trials showed thal this could be realised fedetaiing the freo por foundations using. 7SCrim. diameter CFA ploe wherever posable." "The eelgg.- scheme required 834 OFA pis wth en everego lan of 25m. 487 No, rotary piles with diameters of 1,200mm and 1,500mm and average length of 33m were needed al fixed plors and where depth to Weald Gay Sreates ‘As @ result of those changes the subsequent viedu construction was removed from the ctcal path for contract completion. S GROUND COND! . The geological succession within the Cantal Ashford area may be summarised as follous: Stratum Typical Thicknes (mn) Fil and alluvium Otos Hythe Beds | 0108 Atherfild Clay Oto 18 Weald Clay up to 120, ‘The local stratigraphy at tho site of the cut and cover tunnets is shown on Figure 3, Level (Wop) ¢ z Figure 3 -Gooiogical Long Section of Tunnels At the sito of the Viaduct, Woald Clay ie present immediately beneath Fill and Aluvium. A maximum thickness of 8m of alluvial clays, sands and gravels ‘occurs in the flood plane of the Aver Stour deoreasing eastwards to zor0 altho sito of Viaduct 3. Ground investigations caniod out by ALE comprised Standard Penetration Tests, Dutch Cone Penetrometer: ‘Tests and Pressuremoter Tests, Undistuibed 104 mm ‘samples and rotary cores were obtained for testing to ‘measure both the undrained strongth and effective‘toss parameters of the stiff clays. Tho results are ‘summarised in Table 1. ‘Table 1 - Parameters of Sti Clays, Parameter ‘orioid] Weald Gay | Clay Plea nde, 20-60] 20-60, Unargined Strength 30-200 | 50-2007 kN (range)_| (range) ‘Angle of Froton (6°) ae 2g? Mderstely Corsorvatvo ‘Anglo of Fiction (0) > ‘ Residual 7 if Erectve Cohesion ENA [0 7 The Hythe Beds were encountered at two locations, They consist predominantly of sity and clayey fine sand with sandstone bands and sandstone boulders were ‘encountored in pling operations. Atherlield Clay was present throughout the tunnel site but the base of the stratum was close to formation, see Figure 3. The Atherliald Clay wes stif or vory stff clay and vias closely fissured. Partings of sil wero prosent at Some locations, generally towards the base of the stratum. Figure 4- Core of Weald Clay Weald Clay extended to considerable depth beneath the tunnolled seotion of the route and at the site of the Viaduct, The bearing ples dorive their eapacty from this slratum and the load tosts wore analysed on that basis. ‘The Weald Clay is elso stif or very sti It contelns many silt partings and laminations, see Figure 4 and bande of Sitstone. These are up to 300 mm thick and contain numerous fissures. PILE CONSTRUCTION Trial Bores ‘Alcommencement a lorry mounted rotary pling ig made 4 series of 800mm dameter trial bores in order to ‘assess temporary stabilly. The bores extended to a depth of 20m and were left open for periods of up 10 three days. CCTV surveys and video records showed that bores within the Atherfiold Clay remained stable for over 24 hours but deteroration within the Weald Ciay was more rapié, Water se0pages and Inflows could be seen on the Video records and induced spalling of the sides of the bores. The onset of significant deterioration varied from 683 bore to bore but in some cases took less than 20 minutes. In no case was any collapse observed while the bor wes belng formed or immediately on completion. Ithad been cificult fo aesoss boro stabilty from the site investigation information alone. The tal bores showed that it would be possible fo bore the piles dry but that bentonite slurry should be added to stabilise the bores: con completion, Work procesded on that basis. This fneured high productivity during boring but avolded the tisk of interruption from collapsing bores and the high ‘cost of disposing of bentonite contaminated epol, GEATrials Gonsiruction ‘Wels were undertaken to confirm the Viability of the value enginested scheme. Siltstona layors Within the Weald Clay had been penetrated during GFA piling at the Pedastian Way Bridge and during a previous contract at Aehford international Station. At the {ral site a 300mm thick Siltstone layer was encountered at 14.5m depth. The powerful Sollmec R622 rig that was {Used for the trials met refusal on this layer on a number ‘of occasions, although piles wore formed undor carefully Controlled conditions. Given the importance of ‘maintaining schedule and the possibilty that thlckor Siltstone layers might be encountered elsewhere on tho 1.8 km long viaduet wes decided to restrict ‘tho ameter of tho CFA piles to 760mm. allway Working Figure & illustrates the proximity of ping operations to the working third ral lectrc lines. — Cementation prepared dotelled safe method of work statements {SMOWS) for 25 of the 24 Indvidual worksites covering ‘2 combined length of about 2.3km of track. Each SMOWS ivae agread with Railtrack representatives and set down the measures to be taken to ensure that tho ‘sale operation of the raliway was not compromised by ‘construction activities. Figure 6 - GFA Ping Alongside Electtiod Tack a