Cementation Foundations Skanska has finished installing 5000 driven cast in-situ piles to support a two-kilometre embankment that will raise the new A63 bypass nine metres above the River Ouse floodplain near Selby, in Yorkshire.
This area was in the news two years ago after heavy flooding along the River Ouse and the embankment will ensure that any future flooding does not affect traffic flow on the new bypass.
As the foundation soils were not strong enough to support the embankment, Cementation Foundations Skanska with designer High-Point Rendel devised a piling solution to ensure the embankment is built on firm foundations.
This involved using piles which incorporate the company’s patented flared-head system to increase each pile’s coverage area, combined with a geotextile sandwich construction on top.
The 10-km bypass, which takes the A63 around Selby, is being built by Skanska for the Highways Agency and will open in spring 2004.