Aarsleff piles in

In an effort to improve pedestrian and car safety at an automatic railway crossing on the A27 road at Beddingham, UK, a well-known bottleneck and accident blackspot, the UK's Highways Agency decided to replace the crossing with a bridge.

Contractor Alfred McAlpine and consulting engineer Jacobs carried out detailed design and construction of the project, with the main UK£ 22 million (€ 32 million), 89-week contract starting in October 2006.

The approach embankments for the bridge require about 80000 m³ of rock chalk fill, supported on about 2100 precast concrete piles. Aarsleff Piling's UK£ 1,25 million (€ 1,83 million) contract will see the company supply, handle, pitch and install 32000 linear metres of precast concrete piles, made by its subsidiary Centrum Pile.

The 300 mm square section piles have to accommodate the geology across the site – chalk, mudstone – and achieve a maximum working load of 1360 kN. The piles vary in length from 8 to 12 m on the bridge's western embankment, and from 16 to 26 m on the eastern embankment.

Using its own rigs Aarsleff is installing 610 piles on the 120 m long western embankment and 1150 piles on the 300 m long eastern embankment. The longer, jointed piles are made up of 13 m long under piles with pin jointed over piles installed on a 2,2 by 2,9 m centre grid.