Temporary Works
Shoring with a High Water Table Present – Sydney
The Project
Shore Hire engineered a high-capacity shoring solution combining hydraulic bracing, sheet piles and custom steel plates to safely construct a manhole in poor soil with a high water table in Sydney.
Summary
Shore Hire deployed the Shore Brace 200 Hydraulic Bracing system with sheet piles across a 4.5m x 4.5m x 5.25m deep excavation to manage unstable soil and minimise water ingress. Where underground pipework required sheet piles to be omitted, Shore Hire's engineers designed and hung custom steel plates to maintain structural integrity around the obstruction. The solution allowed the customer to complete the manhole construction successfully and under budget.
Challenge
When it came time to construct a manhole in poor soil with a high water table, the customer faced a unique challenge; not only did this water presence impact the stability of the soil significantly, but the customer was also unsure of just how much additional loading this was creating, and so a system with incredible loading that could eliminate as much incoming water as possible was required.
Solution
To overcome this problem, Shore Hire engineered a solution using our Shore Brace 200 Hydraulic Bracing system and sheet piles within the excavation, which measured 4.5m x 4.5m x 5.25m deep.
To accommodate underground pipework crossing through the excavation, Shore Hire’s design incorporated steel plates which were engineered and hung in areas in which sheet piles needed to be omitted. This allowed for the construction of the manhole to proceed smoothly, despite the presence of underground obstacles.
Overall, the use of Shore Brace 200 and the engineering of steel plates proved to be an effective solution to the problem of constructing a manhole in the poor ground with a high water table. The customer was able to complete their project successfully and under budget, thanks to these measures.