Bromley South Central, London

This contract took WJ to Bromley, in the heart of South London, to take part in a new major regeneration project.

At the heart of the regeneration of Bromley in South London a new public square with adjoining cinema, café, restaurants, hotels, apartments, shops and an underground carpark were constructed.

During the construction of the multi-story basement the casting of the basement slab was unsuccessful, and therefore WJ were employed by McLaren, to install a dewatering system within the already existing building to reduce the standing groundwater level in the silty gravelly sands of the Lambeth Group and enable the slab to be recast.

WJ faced a number of technical challenges over the course of the project. The dewatering system was to be installed from the existing basement level, however this meant that the groundwater within the Lambeth Group deposits would be under artesian pressures at up to 1.9m above the installation level.

One of the other main technical challenges was the reduced headroom on site. It was therefore necessary to modify one of WJ’s existing fleets of drilling rigs, the MX510, to allow installation in the confined spaces.

The fact WJ were installing the system within an already existing building meant that discharging of the groundwater was less straight forward than on most projects. The discharge pipework had to be attached to the walls, and routed through the existing building to the discharge point outside of the existing development.

Another successful high profile dewatering success for WJ highlighting our adaptability and resourcefulness when faced with a technical challenge.

Visit https://wjgroup.org/uk-update-bromley-south-central/ to read our blog entry for the project

Visit https://www.mclarengroup.com/casestudies/bromley-south-central/ to learn more about the project

• LOCATION: Bromley, South London
• CLIENT: Cathedral Group
• MAIN CONTRACTOR: McLaren