The British Geotechnical Association (BGA) has announced the results of the 2019 Fleming Award.
The Fleming Award is awarded by BGA to the project team which most demonstrates excellence in geotechnical design and construction. The judging panel look for teamwork across different disciplines and innovation.
Three shortlisted finalists presented to the judging panel at an event on 4 December held at the London HQ of the Institution of Civil Engineers (ICE). The winner was announced as the ‘Tunnelling through under ream piles for the upgrade of Bank Underground Station’ project, featuring a collaborative team including CSIC Industry Partners Transport for London and Arup as well as The Worshipful Company of Grocers, Dragados UK, and Dr Sauer & Partners.
CSIC was involved in the fibre optic monitoring of two existing under ream piles to monitor their integrity and performance during tunnelling interception as part of the Bank Underground Station upgrade in Central London.
The CSIC team, comprising Operations Manager Dr Cedric Kechavarzi and Research Associate Dr Xiaomin Xu, focused on the design and installation of the distributed fibre optic instrumentation of the existing piles as well as data analysis and interpretation which could be compared to numerical predictions. It is believed that this is the first time this technique has been used for piling interception for a tunnelling project. This work is being published by C. A. Barker et al as part of Piling 2020, 15 and 16 September 2020 at Durham University.
