The Egg Shed

Along with the existing portalised timber building, the surrounding site which was also developed to provide a larger building footprint and it was the site parameters encountered which provided most of the challenges to overcome.

The bearing material was loose sand overlain with rubble fill and was heavily contaminated due to the previous site usage as a Gleaners fuel storage site.

To build in this location we adopted vibro stone piling ground improvement to ensure we could transfer the loads to a suitable bearing material. The use of the vibro piles meant that steel could be avoided within this frequently whetted tidal zone and the leaching of concrete into the surrounding marine environment was also greatly reduced.

When designing this we had to ensure the sea wall was not overturned by the piling rig weight or compromised by the vibration from the pile installation. Within the Egg Shed we considered the vibration piles too damaging to the existing structure and adopted mini piles in this location. These were concrete encased in a sacrificial steel casing to limit leaching and ease installation. The serious contamination of the site was addressed with a ventilated mat system.

The site was also within a flood plane and we carried out a flood risk analysis and designed the building and its contents to remain damage free up to the level in danger of flooding.