A TRACTO Mini Olympus GRUNDORAM pipe rammer was recently deployed to a site in Derbyshire to ram a 325mm steel casing under the concrete foundations of a new production plant. The casing was required to host a 225mm HDPE conduit to carry away rainwater from the downpipes of roof guttering on the new building.
The project is the very first development in the UK for German soft-drinks producer, MEG GmbH, part of the Schwarz Group that owns the Lidl supermarket chain. Scheduled to open in 2022, the huge, 540,000 ft² plant is located on the Dove Valley Industrial Park in Foston and was previously farming land. Deep boring of the site prior to development verified high quality water sources to serve the factory and once construction is completed, the plant will process, bottle and distribute mineral water and soft drinks to the entire Lidl supermarket chain throughout the UK and Ireland.
GMI Construction Group, a well-established building and construction services company based in Leeds, was appointed as principal contractor on the site and is working in partnership with Civil Engineer, Rook Services and Plant Hire Firm, R O Donaghey, to complete all groundworks. The foundations were laid after dewatering, stabilising and compacting of the soil – this subsequently required a highly powerful solution to install the steel casing. With previous experience of trenchless techniques, the team at Rook Services recommended pipe ramming as the quickest, safest and most cost-effective solution to install drainage under the foundations. And, as an existing customer of TRACTO UK, they contacted the technical team for their advice.
The Mini Olympus, 1080mm long, 180mm wide and 720Nm force, was proposed for the job and delivered to site for operation by the experienced team from Rook Services. The rammer was deployed at a depth of 400mm from the crown of pipe to the base of the foundation and the total time ramming was just 55 mins for the 6m installation. A foam pig was propelled through the casing using pressurised air which cleaned out the debris following installation enabling the HDPE to be pulled through efficiently.
Nick Richards at Rook Services, said: “I knew I could rely on the support of the team from TRACTO and the company came up trumps as ever. A GRUNDORAM was delivered to site and the job was completed quickly and efficiently. TRACTO products are always highly reliable and powerful so this ram didn’t add overall time to our works schedule.”