Canary Wharf at night
Dewatering to improve piling programme/capacity
Canary Wharf lower aquifer
- Client
- Canary Wharf Group
- Main contractor
- Canary Wharf Contractors
- Consultant
- Arup
- Dewatering contractor
- WJ Groundwater Ltd
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Canary Wharf is built on the site of the West India Docks, until 1980 one of the busiest docks in the world. When the plan to build phase 2 of the development began, it was one of the largest building projects in Europe with more than 15 major buildings up to 45 storeys high in an area 400 m by 400 m. WJ installed a deepwell scheme comprising 15 wells 70 m deep designed to lower the groundwater by up to 25 m so that the piles for the development could be installed into dry ground. This speeded up installation and gave an increased pile load capacity resulting in a reduced piling programme and cost savings which more than covered the cost of the dewatering. A telemetry system was also installed by WJ to monitor groundwater levels and discharge flows and to provide an alarm warning in the event of system stoppage.
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Key words
- property development, chalk, deepwells