A leading property development company are building a large new residential area in Seaton with the help of Vertase FLI.
The development gives good access to the Jurassic Coast World Heritage Site and will mean more than 100 two to four-bedroomed new homes for the town.
Engaged by Vertase for the ground monitoring during the preparatory surcharge works, GEO-Instruments have already completed five successful installations and monitoring phases over the previous three years.
The soil conditions on site mean it is necessary to prepare the ground before each phase of construction to ensure adequate consolidation and stability.
Vertase are employing a Pre-loading (or Surcharging) method. The ground area is covered with a load equivalent to that of the final planned development and given time to compact and consolidate. This means that any ground deformation or settlement occurs before construction, avoiding damage to any buildings.
In order to confirm the expected settlement has been achieved and the ground has stabilised accordingly GEO-Instruments installed a liquid settlement monitoring system manufactured by Geosense.
The Liquid Settlement System consists of plates buried under the surcharge connected via tubing to a reservoir filled with liquid. Each plate is fitted with a vibrating wire pressure transducer that measures changes in pressure as the plates move relative to the reservoir. Settlement can then be calculated in millimetres using the pressure values.
For the sixth phase, we installed six settlement plates and transducers arranged around the edge and in the centre of the pre-loading area. Once installed, the instrumentation gathers data automatically and requires no intervention under normal operation.
If you would like to find out more about our settlement monitoring services please click here.