Planning Application

Construction Method Statement (Part 5 of 15)

09 January 2018
Leopard UK Kensington Propco Limited Heythrop College
Construction Method Statement

4 Key construction elements 4.2 Basement

The proposed scheme comprises a common basement shared by five of the proposed
4.1 General buildings. A basement will be formed over the southern part of the site with a connection to
buildings to the north of the site constructed adjacent to the LUL retaining wall.
Drawings of the proposed development are provided by the Architect as part of this planning
application. Key elements of the construction relevant to the proposal’s impact on its The basement will be formed through the installation of a secant pile wall around the entire
surroundings are highlighted in this section. perimeter of the proposed basement area into the underlying London Clay. Where the wall is
proposed adjacent to existing structures, 1.5m clearance has been left from the structure to the
The project proposes to demolish all buildings except for the college building fronting pile centreline to allow adequate lateral clearance for a piling rig. Where the wall is close to
Kensington Square to construct a high specification residential development for the over 55 existing tree canopies and root protection zones, a low headroom lightweight piling rig will be
age category. The scheme comprises apartments with a range of communal amenities such as used.
a restaurant, swimming pool, library and spa.
The extent of the basement has been designed to comply with vertical and horizontal
Five new buildings are proposed to be constructed and the historic existing college building exclusion zones around the Thames Water sewer.
refurbished to provide residential accommodation. Two of the end of terrace houses around
Kensington Square will be converted back into private housing with the third providing care
facilities such as nursing accommodation or a doctor's surgery. A basement predominantly to
the south and west of the site will accommodate amenities, plant and car parking. New
apartment blocks will be reinforced concrete construction to provide a level of solidity and
acoustic separation between floors that is expected from a high specification residential
development.
The largest two apartment blocks are proposed to be constructed in part on top of a
continuous structural deck over the adjacent District and Circle Line tracks.

Figure 14: Proposed basement

4.3 Foundations
The new buildings will be founded on pile foundations using either a single pile or a group of
smaller diameter piles beneath each superstructure column. The potential diameters of internal
bearing piles considered appropriate at this stage range from 900mm to 1800mm. The piles
will be constructed using rotary bore techniques and are expected to be installed from a piling
platform level close to the existing ground level at approximately +10mOD. Pile trim levels
will be close to ground level in areas of no basement and approximately +4.2mOD and
+0.8mOD for the single and double level basements respectively.
While the base foundation scheme is piled, there is potential for the buildings to be founded
Figure 13: Proposed development, second floor plan using a raft or piled raft solution should it be considered feasible at detailed design stage. It is
considered a raft or piled raft would give ground movements which are no more onerous in
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Leopard UK Kensington Propco Limited Heythrop College
Construction Method Statement

terms of impact on neighbouring structures and third party assets than the fully piled
foundation scheme. This assumption would be tested and confirmed via analysis before a raft
or piled raft scheme is adopted.
For a typical internal column load of 5000kN the bearing piles are expected to have a toe level
of -21mOD for a single pile per column solution. The 1800mm diameter piles have been sized
according to the LDSA (2009) piling guidance, which is used by London Building Control
officers, and based on the following:
• London Clay undrained shear strength design line, cu = 70 + 5z kN/m2 (where z is the
depth below the surface of the London Clay)
• α = 0.5
• FoS on shaft only in compression, Fsu = 1.2
• FoS overall in compression, Fou = 2.6

4.4 LUL deck

The deck structure over the District and Circle lines will be supported from rows of
foundations adjacent to the London Underground (LUL) tracks, both by the LUL retaining
wall bounding the Copthorne Tara Hotel and within the ‘10 foot’ zones between the tracks.
The proposed foundations are a mix of mini piles and hand dug caissons, installed within
hoarding which will protect the tracks and other assets during construction. Continuous
Figure 15: Section through proposed LUL deck
concrete walls will be constructed on top of the piles to support the structure of the deck.
The existing LUL wall adjacent to site is proposed to be lowered. The deck is proposed to
comprise steel transfer beams spanning between the support walls and supporting upper and
lower concrete deck surfaces. Steel beams will be craned into position over the southern part
of the deck and then installed from tracks on the partially constructed deck for the northern
part. The deck and support walls will satisfy standard LUL clearance requirements and cables
on the existing LUL walls will be protected during the works.
Piles and hand dug caissons will be designed in accordance with LDSA (2009) using the same
assumptions as for the main bearing piles and described in Section 4.3.
Further information on the deck structure can be found in the LUL Feasibility report (Arup,
2017) [6].

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Leopard UK Kensington Propco Limited Heythrop College
Construction Method Statement

• Hard/Firm when the female piles are made of ‘firm’ mix; this gives reasonable durability
5 Basement construction and is probably the most commonly used secant wall types in London.
• Hard/Hard when female and male pile are both cast with full strength concrete and both
5.1 General are reinforced. This option provides significant extra stiffness, however it takes longer to
install and is the most expensive option.
Where it is double level, the proposed basement extends to a maximum depth of
approximately 10m below the current ground level and will be founded in the London Clay. The proposed design assumes a hard-firm secant piled wall. This wall type has been chosen to
Where it is single level, the proposed basement formation varies from approximately 4.5m to balance the required wall stiffness, water resistance, construction program, cost considerations
5.8m below existing ground level and will be founded in the River Terrace Deposits and and construction tolerances. To achieve the required watertighness further waterproofing
London Clay respectively. measures such as a reinforced concrete liner wall or drained cavity will be required.
A propped secant pile wall will be used to support the excavation around the site. The lowest
basement slab will span between piled foundations to support the weight of the building 5.3 Lateral Stability
above, although as noted in Section 4.3, a raft or piled raft foundation may be considered at a
Below ground, earth, water and building surcharge pressures will apply lateral loads to the
later design stage.
outside of the retaining walls as the excavation proceeds inside. Lateral support to the secant
Construction details for the LUL deck are discussed in detail in the LUL Feasibility Report piled walls will be provided during excavation by means of temporary propping, using steel
(Arup, 2017) [6] and are not discussed further in this report. struts fixed to the retaining wall using waling beams to spread the force. In the permanent
case, the propping action will be taken by the basement floor slabs at each level.
5.2 New basement retaining wall A stiff propping system has been adopted, with the amount of temporary propping and the
construction sequence designed to limit ground movements; an indicative layout for the
A number of different wall types have been considered to form the basement retaining wall. A propping arrangement for the different areas of the site is shown in Figure 17. It is envisaged
secant piled wall has been chosen as the most appropriate solution around the perimeter of the that two levels of temporary propping will be required for excavation of the double level
basement given the high stiffness required for the wall and the presence of water bearing basement with a single level of props for the single level basement. Design of the retaining
gravels. wall for lateral stability using this propping system has been carried out using Oasys FREW,
refer to Section 6.

Figure 16: Schematic of secant pile wall

A secant pile wall consists of overlapping piles (male and female), as shown in Figure 16. The
female piles are constructed first. They are usually unreinforced and may be a weaker
concrete mix than the male piles (‘soft’ or ‘firm’). The purpose of the female piles is to create
a watertight seal between the adjacent male piles. Male piles are subsequently cut through the
female piles and are reinforced to provide the main wall stiffness and structural capacity. The
male and female piles may have different diameters and may extend to different depths.
Typically female piles extend at least 1m below formation level to provide a water tight
basement and the male piles extend to the depth required to ensure stability of the wall and
sufficient capacity to resist any vertical loads applied to the perimeter.
Depending on the basement requirements the possible options for a secant pile are:
• Hard/Soft when the female piles are made of ‘soft’ mix; this option has durability issues
particularly if the wall is to provide any long term resistance to water ingress and is
therefore not considered appropriate. Figure 17: Proposed temporary propping arrangement

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Leopard UK Kensington Propco Limited Heythrop College
Construction Method Statement

It is noted that in the long term there will likely be an out of balance earth pressure as a result
of the imbalance of earth pressures behind opposing retaining walls following construction of
the basement. For the current envisaged piled foundation scheme the bearing piles will be
designed to resist this applied lateral force. For the alternative option of a raft or piled raft, the
out of balance earth pressure would be carried in friction on the underside of the raft, assisted
by appropriately reinforced bearing piles if required.

5.4 Construction sequence

The construction sequence for the area of the proposed basement will comprise the following
key stages, which are illustrated in the schematic cross sections in Figure 18 to Figure 20.
Refer to Appendix B for full construction sequence drawings.
1. Demolish existing buildings and backfill small areas of existing basement to ground
level. Construct piling platform at ground level.
2. Construct guidewall and secant piles from ground level around the site (a low headroom Figure 19: Stage 6 - Excavation to B2 formation level
piling rig will be used adjacent to LUL tracks, beneath retained tree canopies and
around tree root protection zones).
3. Install main bearing piles across the site using rotary bored piling techniques. Cast pile
heads low and backfill blind bores with granular material to avoid excessive breaking
down of piles.
4. Locally excavate to construct secant pile wall capping beam, using temporary supports
as needed. Excavate to 1.5m below ground level to construct capping beam and install
temporary raking props to secant pile wall (both double and single level).
5. Excavate to underside of B1 slab level (approximately +5mOD).
6. In areas of double basement install second level of temporary props and excavate to
formation level (approximately +0.8mOD).
7. Construct B2 slab.
8. Construct B1 slab then remove raking prop at B1.
9. Construct Ground Floor slab then remove top level of props.
10. Construct superstructure.

Figure 20: bottom-up construction of development

Figure 18: Stage 0 - existing condition on site

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