Zueblin Ground Engineering

This award recognises a hi-tech advancement or concept that has helped a company improve its performance or delivery of a specific challenging element of a project, between January 2022 and January 2023. This category is not aimed at projects that have achieved overall excellence – such projects should be entered into one of the six project categories. The entrant may have achieved technical excellence through producing a new approach to analysis or design, advanced techniques or procedures during design or delivery and/or working with its customers to improve delivery of a specific part of a project through technical refinement. An entry should be for a single technical advance or development applied to a specific part of a project. Developments applied to a number of projects may be better placed in the Digital Innovation or Equipment Innovation categories. The geotechnical work on the project presented must be completed at the time of the submission.

Victoria Road Crossover Box diaphragm wall buttress panel construction

The construction of buttress panels for the caterpillar shaped diaphragm wall shaft at VRCB presented some difficult challenges. The complex buttress panel cages needed a significant amount of temporary works to allow them to be lifted into position safely and without damage. Splicing of the heavily reinforced sections posed unacceptable risks to H&S and quality whilst transporting the 35m long and 4.5m wide, cruciform single section cages to site was not feasible. The solution was to construct the 80t cages on-site and in a purpose-built facility providing a CARES compliant environment. The lifting operations of the cages used two 650t cranes performing a tandem lift before the external skeletal truss was removed. All cages were installed successfully and safely achieved through close collaboration between Client, Zueblin and the supply chain. This achievement provides a valuable reference for buttress panel design and related feasibility assessments for future tunnelling projects.