From pre- development through to completion
A brand new state-of-the-art motor village in Rochford, Essex designed to accommodate six new car franchises, a valet centre and a petrol station. Pinnacle headed up the entire project providing civil and structural engineering expertise from pre- development through to completion.
Weak sub-grade made for inadequate foundations
Low CBR (California Bearing Ration) values on the site indicated a weak sub-grade which would not provide an adequate foundation for the planned development.
Soil stabilisation provided a more efficient solution
Traditionally developers would lean towards capping as a solution to increase the soil’s strength. However, this would have required replacing the soil on site with an engineered formation of compacted aggregates, typically sourced from resources quarried off site.
Existing unusable soils would normally be carted off site to landfill which combined with the importing of capping, would have led to significant haulage issues and costs. Not only that, but Pinnacle also recognised the traditional capping approach would have led to sizeable implications to both the local and wider environment in terms of disturbance and carbon emissions.
Always thinking ‘outside-of-the-box’ Pinnacle came up with a solution that was kinder to the environment, more efficient and significantly more cost effective for the client – soil stabilisation!
Soil stabilisation with quicklime is a modern and efficient method of recycling and strengthening inert and contaminated soils to raise the CBR values. This value engineering idea not only provided a suitable, solid platform on which to found the building slabs and vehicular pavements, but also saved a massive £500K in terms of costs on this project!
Infrastructure placement challenge
The client wanted to avoid positioning the surface water attenuation tanks under any one particular dealership to eliminate any issues with ongoing liability and maintenance and thinking ahead to potential resale of part, or whole of the site, in the future.
High-tech drainage modelling provided the solution
Pinnacle were able to draw on their expertise in the field of high-tech drainage modelling and advised on a number of options for the tanks. Ultimately the client chose to place the tanks under the new estate roads for ease of future access and maintenance and Pinnacle were able to deliver this to the client’s wishes.
