Project: Borough Yards, Stoney Street

Wates Group with Keltbray, contracted ScrewFast to install foundations as part of their Borough Yards redevelopment project at Stoney Street on London’s Southbank. Designed by architect SPPARC , the development features five mixed-use buildings for offices, shops, gallery, restaurants and a cinema as part of a scheme aimed at enhancing the re-generation of the surrounding areas of the Bankside Quarter and Borough Market.

The project, by developer Meyer Bergman, was a complete redevelopment of former wine-tasting venue Vinopolis and neighbouring sites into a new shopping and restaurant complex, fronting the pedestrian paths linking Tate Modern with Borough Market, the newly reconfigured London Bridge station, and The Shard.

ScrewFast’s screwpile foundations were the ideal solution for supporting the loading of the heavy mezzanine floor structures. 295 helical pile foundations were installed in this busy area of inner London in 5 visits over the 15 month project. The reduction in project duration that using screw piles creates helped reduce risk, along with using minimal plant and personnel. To complete the foundations, ScrewFast required only 13 and 21 tonne rubber tracked excavators, 8m Telehandler and just 1 Plant Operator and 2 Installers.

Many of the foundations installed under the arches with highly restricted plant access and movement, on the intricate, populous and congested site. Since ScrewFast helical piles require no excavation, no waste material is produced that occurs with concrete, there is no requirement for skips and no removal and transporting of spoil. The bespoke-designed piles were installed with specific placement around existing buried services, with ground testing complete in advance of the project launch.