Sandhills Station, Liverpool. Mini Piling.

As part of a £6m upgrade of Sandhills Station in Liverpool, All Foundations won the contract to undertake the piled foundations for a number of new structures to provide customers with improved access.

Client:	Network Rail
Main Contractor:	J Murphy & Sons Limited
Consulting Engineers:	Hyder
Value of Foundations:	£155,000
Scope of Works:	Mini Piling. 42 No. 350mm diameter hollow stem mini-piles 120 No. 350mm diameter CFA piles

Click image to enlarge.

The station is one of the most heavily used on the Merseyrail network and sees 1.5m passengers per year pass through the station with 26 trains per hour passing through at peak times. It is also a key station for travelling football supporters of both Liverpool and Everton footballs clubs.

Foundations

The first phase of this contract required piles installed on the platform to support structures that include a lift shaft, unisex disabled toilet and new waiting rooms.

During the initial days of piling, no intact rock was encountered below the embankment so All Foundations were instructed to undertake 26m deep probes to enable Hyder to carry out a design check.

Great care was required due to the proximity of the track as trains were still travelling through, but not stopping at the station. A restricted access piling rig was used for this stage of the works to ensure its fall radius was clear of the track.

The second phase involved the installation of an access canopy from the lower level car park and a DDA compliant ramp to provide access from street level to the platform as the track is elevated on an 8m embankment.

John Robins, Northern Regional Director for All Foundations states “We won this contract for a number of reasons. We showed that were able to carry out the works safely, using restricted access piling rigs, whilst making the contract financially feasible to undertake. This is an area that All Foundations has expertise in, and from this we hope to work on a lot more projects of this type.”

Network Rail is currently improving a number of stations across the UK to comply with The Disability Discrimination Act (1995) to allow better access for disabled passengers. The act has allowed the Government to set minimum standards for disabled access to public transport.