As the name suggests, the new Contig 600 from National Pile Croppers, is a cropper built with the purpose of reducing piles in a contiguous or secant wall formation where only two sides of the pile can be exposed and spaces between adjacent piles is tight. The new Contig 600 has been supplied to Churngold Construction working on behalf of Halsall Construction on the Wapping Wharf project in Bristol, helping to deliver a new sustainable office block on the harbour side. Feedback from Churngold Construction has been highly complementary, stating the cropper has performed ‘better than expected’, helping to make real progress on this prestigious scheme.
Construction progress has significantly increased on Bristol’s harbour side with contractors, Halsall Construction and sub-contractors Churngold Construction, progressing impressively on work for the city’s new sustainable office building, Cargo Work. Over the last few months, significant progress has been made to the Grade A workspace which is set in Wapping Wharf. The concrete floor decks, load bearing internal walls and steel frames are now complete, paving the way for the creation of the new workspace.
The Bristol development is housed within the stone walls of the former J S Fry warehouse, now fully restored and exposed following the removal of the roadside walls that previously ran along Wapping Road. Once complete to shell and core, future tenants will have the unique opportunity to work with the developer to design their own bespoke working environment. Cargo Work has facilities for up to 230 people across 20,270 sq. ft. of cutting edge office space. The building has been designed to be sustainable and low in energy use. It will include 47 secure bicycle racks and seven parking spaces with EV charging provision.
The creation of Cargo Work will represent the return of this long derelict former warehouse site to commercial use. Set on the corner of Wapping Road and Cumberland Road, near the Louisiana Pub, the site has stood empty for many years. Wapping Wharf is widely acknowledged as one of Bristol’s most exciting new neighbourhoods, with around 450 homes set alongside a vibrant community of independent businesses, which have put the quarter on the map as one of the city’s go-to food destinations.
First use at new development
Churngold Construction was awarded the contract to undertake the groundworks and RC Basement for Halsall Construction. The knowledge and expertise of Churngold Construction’s site managers and operatives has established it as a major force in the earth moving industry. With an impressive range of earth moving equipment and other support equipment that can remove all unwanted material from site. Up to the minute control of all its plant is maintained using 3D modelling to ensure all earth moving operations are carried out as efficiently as possible.
A part of Churngold’s brief was the cropping of the concrete piles used in the development. These had to be dealt with efficiently, speedily and safely, with the resulting concrete residue reprocessed in an environmentally friendly manner. In order to undertake this task, Churngold turned to its pile cropping partner of choice, National Pile Croppers (NPC). “Churngold invited us to site to see the difficulties faced with cropping of the piles. I must admit the complexities of site, and the way the piles have been laid out, presented a challenge. Fortunately, we have been working on an updated version of our Contig 600 cropper. This would prove to be the ideal tool for the job,” explains NPC director Lee Aston.
Maintaining structural strength in a tight fit
“With the new Config 600 two hydraulic rams mounted opposing at 180o provide the ability to position the cropper over the wall to reduce the piles. The wall thickness of the cropper allows it to slot between contiguous piles with spacing as close as 50mm,” explains Lee. “The original Config 600 was larger than anticipated, but has the ability to crop 750mm piles, whilst this is a good problem to have, it also caused issues addressing a 600mm contiguous pile with a 150mm (nominal) pile spacing. In order to develop a cropper suited to Churngold’s requirements, we aimed to build a cropper that had a reduced width, maintaining its structural strength, whilst also keeping the overall dimensions tight to a 600mm pile.”
The design and the development of the new Config 600 overcame any issues related during stress analysis whilst attempting to achieve the optimal jaw to pile interface angle. NPC eventually hit the perfect balance and the latest version is now on site with Churngold cropping 600mm and 450mm diameter augured piles in a contiguous wall format. These were installed leaving a nominal spacing of 150mm between adjacent piles which has proved to be the perfect scenario for using the new Contig 600 V2.
“Feedback from the guys (Churngold Construction) on site has been highly complementary stating the cropper is performing better than expected, and it was expected to do well! The change in width dimension (of the new Config 600) had a major impact resulting in piles in the middle of the wall being able to be reduced where other croppers would foul on the adjacent pile resulting in the need for further cropping from the end of the wall of piles. The weight and centre of gravity of the new Config 600 has also been moved to provide noticeably superior manoeuvrability; all this whilst also maintaining the excellent pile finish expected of the NPC range of pile croppers,” concludes National Pile Croppers director Lee Aston.
www.nationalpilecroppers.com
