Castlehill Ebbsfleet

Pile Type: CFA piles

Number of Piles: 338no.         

Diameter: 350mm  

Depth: 24.5m

The project required Franki Foundations to construct CFA piled foundation to multiple four-storey apartment buildings for a new town development within Ebbsfleet Valley. The new development will provide 10,000 new homes and is expected to create an estimated 20,000 new jobs. 

The ground conditions consisted of an engineered fill which was used to backfill the old quarry basin. Founding piles into this strata provides both a unique challenge and correct measures of engineering judgement in conjunction with load testing to achieve the required product. 

Franki carried out two, three cycle static load tests on expendable piles terminated within the engineered fill in order to evaluate the competency of the engineered fill material, providing data for return and future phases. 

Using the Soilmex SF-50, Franki installed a total of 338, 350mm diameter CFA piles to 24.5m deep. Franki were able to complete the piling works in just five weeks across multiple phases, which allowed for follow on works to start as planned.