Noise and vibration reduction during foundation construction

The short-term environmental impact of foundation construction consists of noise, vibration and air pollution. Current environmental legislation prevents the use of conventional hammering techniques, which are used to install steel foundation piles, in urban areas. This has lead to the use of bored concrete piles, which can be installed by augering. However, in contrast to steel piles, old concrete piles cannot be removed and recycled at the end of the life of a building. Instead, they represent subsurface litter that is left to rot and obstruct future development.

A novel new foundation construction technique permits the installation and extraction of steel piles with minimal noise and vibration. This is achieved by pressing each pile into the ground using only hydraulic force. Field monitoring has allowed this lower level of pollution to be quantified. Using this data, predictive charts of the noise and vibration created by press-in pile installation have been created. These provide a tool for designers who wish to utilise this unobtrusive construction technique. Further research is comparing the performance of pressed-in piles to that of foundations installed using conventional methods.

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David White

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Telephone - +44 (0) 1223 337097
Fax - +44 (0) 1223 460777

Other environmentally related projects:

Environmental impact of foundation construction