Cementation Box Clever
Cementation Foundations Skanska have begun work on the Stratford Box (Channel Tunnel Rail Link Contract 230), on the site of what will become East London's Stratford International Railway Station. This station will provide a hub for passengers arriving from and leaving for Europe as well as domestic services.
An enormous underground box 1 km long for the station is being formed. Part of the massive plant requirement for this project are two high capacity automated batching plants, based upon the successful and proven Colmixer CP range of Paddle Assisted Colloidal mixers.
These two containerised units are required to provide an abundant supply of bentonite slurry for the diaphragm walls and piling needed in preparation for the station. It is well known that colloidal mixing is the superior way to mix bentonite, and Colcrete Eurodrill have a long pedigree in designing and manufacturing these very machines. Each unit is capable of an output of up to 30 cubic metres per hour.
Cementation are very familiar with the Colcrete range and called Colcrete Eurodrill in to discuss their needs. Julian Crawley, Cementation Projects Director told us, "Plant reliability is a very important part of Cementation's commitment to its customers - we were looking not only for a modern efficient mixer, but also one that wouldn't break down. Added to this, Colcrete was able to respond rapidly to our initial enquiry, and was happy to meet our full requirements. The Colcrete mixer seemed a very safe choice!"
There was also a desire that the two units could be later used to mix and pump grout in order to utilize the equipment for future projects. Mark Rex, Operations Manager for Colcrete Products said, "This posed us a design problem because there are different volumes of water required for mixing bentonite and grout, so we had to find a way to provide this dual system with limited space." This was successfully achieved and the units were first assembled in a virtual environment on the company's CAD system, and the drawings submitted to the client for approval prior to manufacture.
