Design and Build contractor Slipform Engineering has won Project of the Year by a Specialist Contractor (subcontract up to £2m) and Equipment Supplier of the Year at the Construction News Specialist Awards after using unique methods to progress the Thames Tideway development.
Slipform Engineering has worked on the £4.2 billion project for joint venture contractor CVB. The development is a 25km tunnel running under the tidal section of the Thames, which is set to reduce sewage, waste and excess rainwater for the benefit of London and local wildlife.
The company’s approach to the project has halved the construction period of the second lining of the Chambers Wharf shaft to just 17 weeks. It has achieved this by designing and patenting a hybrid of its traditional slipform system.
A traditional slipform process could not be used on the project due to the rebar density this varied between 450kgs/m3 and 350kgs/m3. The patented slipform system designed by Slipform Engineering allowed this to be continuously poured. There was also another first as this was also the first time that a 70% GGBS blended concrete mix was successfully used to complete the slipform process.
There was only one option prior to Slipform’s thinking outside the box patented system, the original option was to use a system called jumpform which would have taken minimum 10 months and have also created a construction joint every 3m lift 17no in total but Slipform Engineering option reduced this to 4nr.
Eamon Hanley, Director at Slipform Engineering, said: “We are absolutely delighted to have won two awards which recognise the hard work of our team to implement our approach to such a significant project as the Thames Tideway development.
“We are continuously developing, refining and polishing our approach to projects which allow us to reduce construction time compared to traditional methods, save costs, and ultimately, work safer.
“We have reduced risks such as working at height, reducing the potential of falling materials and eliminated structural failure thanks to the design and controlling technology. We have also increased efficiency and reduced space and disruption on sites by modularising the rig for offsite pre-assembly and delivering it ready for use.
“The recognition from the CN Specialist Awards is fantastic. Winning Project of the Year by a Specialist Contractor highlights our behaviours, our project performance, our exemplary health and safety record and our willingness to collaborate on this work for CVB. Our process has helped us to grow the team, refine and perfect our systems, and make significant differences to projects through a collaborative approach.”
Slipform Engineering’s method allowed the CVB delivery team to cast the full height liner prior to the Tunnel Boring Machines and worked with them to develop the proposed permanent works design through value engineered solutions to improve the project budget and programme.
The most significant design innovation was the method of lifting the Slipform rig. The rig was specifically designed to be suspended from strand jacks, which worked in unison to lift the rig through the regulation of an automatic control system.
Paul Siberry, CVB Project Manager, said: “The innovative solution proposed by Slipform Engineering using a rig that pulls up rather than a traditional jacked system was fundamental in the selection of them to complete the shaft secondary lining at Chambers Wharf on Tideway East.
“Despite not having worked with Slipform Engineering previously they were awarded the contract and have integrated with the team during an ECI period to provide collaborative development for the pre-fabricated reinforcement and concrete.”
Find out more on slipformengineering.co.uk
Photo credit: Slipform Engineering
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