Promotion alert!
Promotion Alert!
A-sqaured Studio is delighted to announce the promotion of Josie Stevens to the position of Senior Engineer.
Josie has been a wonderful addition to the team, both as a person and professional, delivering challenging projects and coordinating brilliant social events for the company.
Well done Josie!
The £50,000 Trial Pit
Budget squeezing and downward price pressure mean it is becoming harder to deliver groundworks projects with a healthy margin. Therefore, A-squared Studio Engineers were surprised to discover a client considering paying £50,000 per trial pit.
But what can you get paying £50,000 for a trial pit, you may ask? Or in this case £300,000 for six of them?
We thought we would have a go at pricing the six trial pits for our client. However, we could only value our works at around £10,000 in total. Maybe we were missing something, we thought.
A-squared sent our geo-environmental team to the site and excavated the six trial pits. We spent time accurately logging the pits and collecting representative soil samples. Everything went smoothly, and we did not find any unexpected risks in the ground worth £300,000 - no buried Roman coins, Anglo Saxon artifacts or similar.
Finally, we diligently prepared our report and issued it to the client. The client used the A-squared waste assessment to dispose of all Made Ground within the proposed basement excavation as Non-hazardous waste. The previous advice to the client provided by a Contractor had been to dispose of all Made Ground as Hazardous waste, and this is how the initial eye-wateringly high consequential cost of the trial pitting works had been derived.
To dispose of the Made Ground as Hazardous waste would have cost the client approximately £300,000 (effectively £50,000 consequential cost per trial pit). The accuracy of the A-squared waste assessment showed that there was actually no Hazardous waste and the client made a huge saving on disposal (effectively £5,000 consequential cost per trial pit). The overall commercial advantage of employing A-squared as the project geo-environmental consultant is now obvious. You get what you pay for by commissioning a specialist geo-environmental consultant to act on your behalf before engaging with a Contractor.
Contact A-squared if you are either commissioning soil disposal or a contractor undertaking soil disposal. We can consider your soil waste liability and project commercial outcome holistically. You can also contact us for an informal discussion around your requirements - freddie.kennedy@a2-studio.com.
geo-environmental team
Happy new year to all!
A-squared is very pleased to announce that Freddie Kennedy has joined as our new Head of Geo-environmental.
He is a contaminated land expert with a strong technical and commercial focus, having cross-sector experience in development, infrastructure, land transaction and environmental claims. His breadth of experience, from both a consultant and a specialist contractor, gives Freddie a unique perspective on the geo-environmental marketplace and the requirements of the various industry participants. He is focussed on providing detailed technical advice with a high quality tailored service. Freddie has a proven track record of successful engagement with regulators and guiding projects through the planning process from inception to remediation verification.
Welcome Freddie!!
One Centenary Way, Birmingham
A-squared designed the piles on behalf of Martello Piling for the challenging One Centenary Way project which is part of the £700M Paradise development transforming the centre of Birmingham. The project comprises a 14 storey building spanning over the A38 underground carriageway. Recently Tower Crane no. 1 has been erected, supported on some of these piles, rising to 134m to the tip of the jib.
One Sherwood Street, Piccadilly Circus
For over two years A-squared has been supporting Martello Piling, Erith Group, Waterman Partnership, Land Securities design and Construct piled foundations as part of the redevelopment of this central London site which sits behind the famous electronic billboard on Piccadilly Circus. Several buildings are being retained along with their facades whilst other buildings are being demolished and replaced. The existing basement is being deepened and extended. The piling works were undertaken in both restricted and unrestricted working areas. The piles and their layout had to be designed to be compatible with the capability of the Martello piling rigs in these working areas. The piles were designed with a reduced factor of safety which was then validated by load testing.
Art'Otel Update!
We are very pleased to see that our project in Hoxton is progressing into the bulk excavation phase.
We will be visiting site over the coming weeks and months to assess the quality of the secant pile wall installation and are maintaining an active involvement throughout the construction phase.
A-squared have supported this scheme throughout the design life-cycle, providing specialist geotechnical consultancy services.
Upcoming Geotechnical Gems Talks
Following on from our very successful first geotechnical gems talk, we are delighted to announce our upcoming bite-size webinars. These sessions have been tailored specifically for structural engineers and contractors.
Upcoming talks include:
Thursday the 9th July: Piled rafts
Thursday the 16th July: Basement foundation behaviour in clays
Thursday the 23rd July: Impact of clay heave on foundation design
All sessions will be held at 13:30 GMT.
Please register your interest for the piled rafts talk at https://lnkd.in/dagtSh9. You will receive a confirmation email and a link to access the session.
See you then!
First Geotechnical Gems Talk
We’re very pleased to announce our first geotechnical gems talk will take place next Tuesday 30th June at 13:30 (GMT).
This initial 12-15 minute bite-size presentation will focus on the use of springs in structural analysis to simulate foundation behaviour, with emphasis on rafts.
This initial session will set the scene for further upcoming topics, including the design of piled rafts.
The presentation has been tailored for structural engineers and contractors. Limited spaces available - book at: https://us02web.zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_UAl_6on3SCuEyxtMLrXMYw
substructure Reuse Analysis
A-squared have recently performed some investigative analysis on existing substructure elements for a scheme in central London. The goal being to predict the performance of these elements under increased loading in order to justify their reuse.
We performed a series of explicit Plaxis 3D FE soil-structure interaction analyses which enabled us to review both ULS & SLS performance, ultimately demonstrating that the structures could be reused safely.
Select extracts below!
Eurocode 7 Updates
Our Tony Suckling is one of three UK experts for CEN/TC 250/SC 7/WG 3/TG 3 which is a task group reviewing the proposed changes regarding pile design for the upcoming update to EN 1997.
Regardless of Brexit the UK will remain a member of CEN and so will continue with Eurocodes for design and execution.
The Eurocode updating process is still ongoing but the key changes for piling can be summarised as being;
The UK will be using the ground model method for pile design
There will be one design combination not two to be considered
Preliminary pile load tests will be called Ultimate Control Tests
Working pile load tests will be called Serviceability Control Tests
There will also be requirements for Inspection Tests and for Integrity Tests.
If you require any further information then please get in touch.
A-squared pile capacity app now available on Android
Some time ago we released our first iOS design application, enabling quick preliminary pile working load calculations to be undertaken for typical London basin ground conditions.
Now, in response to popular demand!, we are very pleased to announce the launch of this application for Android users, enjoy!
Feedback always welcome! Link icon below:
A-squared welcomes new starters
The team is growing!
A-squared is very happy to announce several new arrivals at the company.
Charlie Grinstead has joined the team as an Engineer with a number of years of valuable experience gained in his previous role at HR Wallingford.
Jacopo Terso joins the team as a Senior Engineer, bringing with him a wealth of experience from his time at Bryne Looby.
Sabrina Buensuceso joins the team as a Graduate Engineer having recently completed her MSc in Soil Mechanics at Imperial College London.
Welcome all !!
Deep Basement Site Visit
Our Tony Suckling and Andrew Brindle were recently invited by Toureen Contractors to visit a 20m deep basement that has been excavated in Whitehall.
A-squared have designed the secant retaining wall piles and plunge columns for Toureen. Pile performance and movements were all as expected!
Always nice to see our work come to life!
A-squared says Ola Portugal!
A-squared is now in Portugal!
Andre Sampaio is now working for A-squared from Portugal. He is joined by Raquel Neri, who has come to us from WSP-UK.
Before they left the UK, the whole team went out for the evening to give them a suitable send-off (Andre and Raquel are on the right of the photo).
A-Squared's Director Tony Suckling presents at the Ground Engineering Basements Conference in London
On 3rd October A-squared Director and Co-founder Tony Suckling gave a presentation on the geotechnical aspects of the UCLH Proton Beam Therapy project. Tony presented an overview of the advanced numerical modelling carried out by A-squared along with a comparison of predicted and measured temporary prop loads.
Nine Elms Square Update
A-squared has spent all of 2018 providing geotechnical services for this 10 acre development in London.
To date, we have:
Supervised a ground investigation comprising over 100 boreholes.
Overseen a suite of preliminary test piles.
Undertaken several numerical studies.
Currently, we are providing piling supervision for the four piling rigs working on the Phase 1 development.
Phase 2 of this project is planned for next year.
Thames Tideway Update
A-squared are busy supporting a number of sites on the Thames Tideway mega-project, which are located from the mouth of the Thames Estuary through into central London. We are currently providing design support on four near-shore marine developments, which comprise a combination of reclaimed land supported by sheet pile coffer dams. The sites provide lay-down, materials handling and launch facilities for the major tunnelling works.
FINSBURY TOWER
A-squared are delighted to have been appointed to support detailed design of the proposed refurbishment and extension of Finsbury Tower.
The project demonstrates the design team’s commitment to sustainable development, through refurbishment of the existing tower structure and re-use of under-reamed bearing piles.
This project will further enhance our capabilities to design tall buildings involving complex soil-structure interaction.
Soil springs and other fables
In our regular interaction with our good friends in the structural engineering world, we are often asked to provide springs. Obviously, we're not talking about literal springs here - like those in your car's suspension. Rather, we are referring to a numerical value that generally describes a Hookean relationship between a force applied to the ground surface and the resulting displacement. These springs are often used in structural analysis packages as a simplified means to incorporate the effects of foundation stiffness on a structural system.
In an ideal world, there would be no need to provide spring values. Rather, all soil-structure interaction problems would be modelled holistically, using numerical methods that explicitly capture the continuum aspects of geo-materials, through the use of appropriate constitutive models.
In fact, this is a reality now. There are numerous commercial software packages that can solve complex boundary value problems in continuum mechanics. These packages often come loaded with many types of elements for modelling structural systems (e.g. beams, plates, shells, solids, membranes, etc.) along with numerous constitutive models to represent the behaviour of geo-materials. The software packages often provide pre- and post-processing facilities to develop the model and analyse the results. And at the heart of the software is the means in which the governing system of PDEs are discretised and solved over the analysis domain. The most well-known solution methods typically being either the finite element or finite difference approach.
However, in our experience this approach is still not the norm for many design consultancies, because:
It can be difficult to find engineering professionals that have the necessary depth of understanding of the theoretical and practical aspects of reliably carrying out advanced analysis involving structural and geotechnical systems as a whole. Let alone the need to have another few in any one organisation to enable an adequate level peer review to be carried out. Wisely, a number of consultancies continue to use their tried and tested design processes - at least until such time that the practical use of advanced analyses matures within the field.
There is still a relatively high price point to acquire licenses for geo-structural software packages that can perform these types of advanced analyses. This is particularly the case when full 3D modelling is required. For many small-to-medium sized consultancies, the business case to invest in this software just does not stack up, yet.
Many geo-structural software packages do not come natively equipped with tools that are relied upon by structural engineers to improve productivity and quality control, e.g. automatically performing design checks of structural elements against a specified design standard.
Often times, geotechnical design considerations are contractually separated from the structural engineer's responsibilities. So the opportunity for a collaborative design effort is reduced. Geotechnical design information may be provided in the form of a geotechincal design report that is submitted to the structural engineer at a fixed point in time. Beyond this point, the geotechnical design information can sometimes enter into stasis.
So the use of equivalent springs to represent soil behaviour in structural design remains. However, springs are no panacea and sometimes they can lead you down the rabbit hole. From our experience, there are a number of subtleties and edge-cases that one needs to be wary of when using springs. Questions that we are often asked, include:
Is the use of springs at least a reasonable approximation for the structure being considered?
Is it possible to ignore the foundation effect all together?
How might construction sequencing affect spring values?
What about design in heaving soil mass or where there are buoyancy forces. Can i have negative springs?!
Can I use the same spring for different geometries or arrangements of foundations/footings?
What are the simplifications of real soil behaviour that springs do not capture?
Do my spring values vary with time? What about strain level?
The list goes on...
In light of this we have developed and delivered on a number of occasions to our partners, a brief technical presentation (30-45 mins) on these (and other items) relating to the use of springs in design practice. If you would like to organise a presentation for your consultancy please contact us and we would be happy to introduce ourselves to your team.
New website launched!
We are pleased to present our new website!!
We are glad to say that it no longer looks like it was designed in Microsoft Word 2007 and is now fully functional on mobile devices!
We'd love to know what you think.
Regards,
The Team