Piling Mat design
In all piling projects the stability of the plant is key and as such, a suitably designed piling mat is essential if the works are to be executed in a safe and controlled manner.
It is particularly important that the working platform does not deteriorate or suffer from any movement and/or heave because in piling work the specialist equipment used has a high centre of gravity and the consequences of a collapse can be fatal.
The traditional method of constructing a piling mat is to import and lay a deep layer of stone. Reductions in stone depth can be achieved by adding plastic containment grids at the base of the structure to spread loadings and limit shear.
This is an unsustainable method of construction adding numerous unnecessary lorry movements of materials to and from the site. Whilst a graded stone mat with a well-designed geogrid giving under support and containment has been proven to meet safety requirements. It is a compromise as the loose stone in the mat can cause deflection and require longer setup. In addition, piles have been known to snag going through the plastic geogrid base layer an unnecessary safety issue.
A new soil stabilisation technology is available in the UK; RoadCem zeolite our product enables any available materials including organic topsoil’s, silts, sulphate bearing clays and waste materials to be effectively stabilised to build strong, flexible piling mats for both driven, auger and sheet piles. With this proven time and cost saving technology now available in the UK. Why is stone and crushed concrete still being trucked to new sites for piling mat construction? Have you had any of the following problems with a stone piling mat?
- Planning and local issues with the trucking of large amounts of materials to and from your site.
- Miscalculations with quantities of cut and fill.
- Levels issues as the weak sub soils compact under the heavy stone mat.
- Mats that need to be far larger than the piling area to allow for the problems of shear.
- Dangers of moving top heavy rigs onto and off the unbound stone mat, at commencement and end of operations.
- Dangers of moving top heavy rigs around the unbound stone mat.
- Unpredictability and delays when setting up the rig for each pile on the unbound stone mat.
- Deflection of the piles due to hard and soft areas/pieces of stone.
- Heavy rains causing the stone fines to migrate lower in the mat, leaving loose larger stones on top.
- Damage from water drawn up from high water table during piling.
- Pre-boring needed to avoid break up and damage to brittle cement bound mats.
- Heave and/or swell from sulphate bearing clays.
- Frost getting into trapped water in the mat.
- Piles snagging in the supporting geogrid/mat, chaos.
- Problems removing the stone and pierced geogrid/mat from between the piles is time consuming and labour intensive.
- Stone and geogrid removed after piling must be trucked off site.
RoadCem can be used to produce predictable, safe mats, with excellent visco-elastic properties which absorb dynamic impact preventing cracking and breakaway during piling, enabling quick rig set setup and deflection free piling.
The ductile mat will eliminate breakaway, and cracking around the piles will also be reduced, allowing ongoing use of the RoadCem bound soil mat as a strong cost-effective foundation element. We believe that we can save time, cost, and embodied carbon for most piling mat requirements: Driven, Auger and Sheet. Strength testing can allow early commencement of piling operations and all plant operational certifications can be arranged by our partner team engineers, as part of the installation package.
The wrapping cage like bond created by our patented zeolite technology allows weak, organic, and even sulphate bearing soils to bound together to form impermeable heave resistant monolith layers that will have a flexural easy to work nature allowing easier pile penetration with very little deformation or surface damage during the lifetime of the mat.
Importantly when the piling is complete, RoadCem bound soil piling mats can if required be left in place as blinding for foundation components.
Being 100% recyclable, RoadCem bound soil mats can if required be ground back to soil and reused on site and because no protective stone cover is required during use, nothing needs to be removed from site during reinstatement.
Certified stabilised soil piling mat designs can be prepared by our partners Rodgers Leask consulting engineers of Derby, who can also prepare safe operating plans if required.
- Saves construction time.
- Saves construction cost.
- Reduces carbon.
- Avoids the use of plastics.
- Avoids importing virgin materials.
- Reduces risk.