The development of Building One – the first of three – is being undertaken by Balfour Beatty and two of its subcontractors, Synergy Plant and Toureen Plant, on behalf of principal contractor, Sir Robert McAlpine.

National Pile Croppers has been commissioned to supply and support an array of hydraulic pile croppers to work on this strategically vital development.

The sheer size of Building One and the two other developments, and the speed in which construction of the site is planned, has meant that a huge number of concrete piles are being used. These are of a variety of sizes and designs depending on the specific use of the pile.

Due to the intense project demands with its demanding time schedule, the contractors realised that they would need to call on the services of a company who would be able to supply a plethora of pile cropping equipment and also be able to support the croppers 24/7.

To this end, National Pile Croppers was engaged directly by Balfour Beatty via Synergy Plant and Toureen Plant.

At present, many thousands of concrete piles are in the ground with many more to follow.  Synergy Plant has been using a National Pile Cropper supplied Power Cropper, whilst Toureen Plant six Power Croppers, two Multi Bar croppers and a PC400. The attributes of the equipment are truly being put to the test, working around the clock in order to meet the demanding schedule.

The piles that have been cropped so far are 275mm pre-cast, with the piling mat for Building One being 1,000m x 750m (approx.). When the work is completed on Building One, the contractors will move onto Building Two which is currently at the groundworks stage.