Battersea Power Station and NLE Update
Battersea Power Station
In the last few days I managed to get on a visit to the actual Battersea Power Station (part of phase 2 within the wider Battersea project) after I hosted some of the Phase 2 engineers around the NLE site. I took some pictures and thought they might be interesting.
The Power Station itself will become home to a whole myriad of things, from multi million pound apartments, roof top gardens, a hotel, cinema, restaurants, office space and event space.
I floated the idea of a fly through drone video sequence of our site to the Project Manager but he didn’t seem to interested.
NLE Update
Project milestone achieved, on the completion of diaphragm wall piling within the Crossover Box. Other than the release of funds to have a beer or two on the project it means that we can hand over some space and start the excavation. We dont the whole box as rotary bored piles still have 4 weeks left to finish so we are chasing them out of the box as we continue to excavate.
Having excavated from 101m ATD to 97m ATD the diaphragm wall need breaking out to expose the starter bars. Maximum effort to break concrete as quickly as possible without bending any bars. We are quite content with the lack of bent bars so far.
The sheet piles have started springing a few leaks. They did not have any bitumen in the clutches before they were driven. We now have a problem to either construct a small sump into the blinding layer at 97m ATD or try and seal them (very difficult to do). So far we think welding might be an option but will then require digging back out to break the weld before the piles are pulled out. Not a massive issue, but interested if anyone knows how to plug a dam? water level is at 100m ATD so no more than 3m of head.
Holdfast Training Services Trial Blog 
Well at least the turbine hall isn’t covered in ………………
Of the wall, I wonder is the seepage all over the place or in patches?
The last weeping sheet wall I saw was seeping in distinct patches and these were associated with high permeability areas behind.
We seam welded and broke the seams with a whack and vibro head pulling
I believe that you may find that you have to mis-specify the welding to achieve poor seam fill and ‘defective welding. It’ll have to be MMA (arc) so try with with an oversized rod and lowish power – you get a shite weld but one which fills the gap.
Johnny,
It’s all about the drone videos.
Do you know if bitumen was specified or if there was hope the clutches would not seep?
John, well apparently they had serious problems with asbestos caked in 30 years of pigeon droppings. Apparently a serious environmental issue.
The latest on the leaky clutches is that we are just going to dig a sump and deal with it until the capping beam has been cast and we can backfill behind it. It seems the simplest solution is to do very little. Welding on site is met with a sharp intake of breath whenever it is mentioned.
Chris, no bitumen was specified. It seems that no one thought that it would be an issue. Apparently is was extremely hard driving too. A bit of bitumen might have marginally helped this too.
Jonny
Tied up with the review last week as you well know. Once the hole is dug things get going quickly. Need to come and visit you soon, any preferred dates/periods
Kind regards
Neil