Retail Sector is keeping Keller Foundations' sustainable solutions busy...

At Leek, in Staffordshire, on the site of a former dying works and adjacent to the River Churnet Keller are installing over 3000 Driven Cast In Situ Piles. Working for Mace Retail, a tight programme required piles to be installed early in January for employment units into which existing tenants on the site will move. Work on the Sainsbury's will begin at the end of February. On this site the  Driven Cast In Situ (DCIS) system is the ideal piling solution. The system generates no spoil and avoids contamination of underlying aquifers.Importantly, the concrete for our piles comes from just a few miles away- keeping "pile miles" to a minimum and Sainsbury's sustainability boxes ticked.

 The previous use of the site meant that obstructions were likely and the robust nature of the DCIS system means these can be easily overcome. Also, due to the displacement action during installation and high slump mix which means that downward migration of contaminants can be minimised as much as possible.

On the outskirts of Kings Lynn on the site of a former vegetable coldstore Sainsbury's are building a new store with a difference- sustainability is the key word in this project  in many ways. Firstly,the store is to be constructed with timber trusses but it is in the foundation design where Gary Gabriel Associates have excelled. They have decided to treat the loose sands which underly the site by way of vibro stone columns which uses local stone and allows simple lightly reinforced strip and pad foundations to be used. Some of the warehouse floor slab is to be re-used as it previously supported high bay racking at much higher loading than retail loads. Additionally, should the site be re-developed in the future the stone columns can easily be removed-how's that for sustainable.