London Gateway Berth 4

Quinn Piling were awarded the contract to install the piling for Berth 4 at London Gateway Logistics Hub for DP World, which is designed to accommodate the world’s largest vessels. The site is located on the former shell oil refinery site on the north bank of the River Thames.

Due to an increase in container trade the current port had reached its capacity and the quay needed extended with a fourth berth. We are providing the piling works for the rear piled crane support beam for the ship to shore cranes designed by CGR group, plus grouting at the combi-wall tube clutch positions. The main contractors on the scheme are Mc Laughlin & Harvey in what is a c. £150m civil engineering project.

Construction of a new Berth 4, 430m long tubular piled quay wall began in October 2022. Once complete the new Berth 4 will increase London Gateway’s capacity by a 3rd.

CFA Piling Scope & Details

The total cost for piling for this project was £3.3m. Test piles were carried out in summer of 2023, but main piling works didn’t begin until January 2024 with piling completion in July 2024.

We used CFA piling as it is often used in harbour construction as it causes minimal vibration and reduces the risk of soil displacement which is important as it maintains the integrity of the surrounding structures and avoids settlement issues. A total number of 294 CFA piles were installed with a 1,050mm diameter, to a depth of 29.4m.

Jet Grout Column Scope and Details

225 No. Grout Columns, 250mm diameter, were installed to seal the clutch joints of the combi wall tubular piles on Berth 4 along with a number of 800mm diameter grout columns formed at the interface with Berth 3.

The purpose of the grout columns is to seal the clutch joints of the combi wall tubular piles and stop the egress of sand from Berth 4 into the Thames, which could leave to instability of the Quay wall.

The jet grouting technique employs high pressure erosive jets of grout to break down the soil structure. The jet grout column is formed by rotating and lifting the tool at a controlled rate as grout is injected into the eroded soil. This creates a column consisting of a mixture of injected grout and eroded soil.

Challenges on Site

Additional works included pre-drilling grout columns due to the presence of very dense soils at depth. CFA predrilling using our 140T Mait piling rig ensured that the B125 jet grouting rig was able to drill and form a grout column to design depth.