Greggs Newcastle
Challenge
Our client, Lindum Group, was facing the challenge of installing a fire main at Greggs’ site in Newcastle. The planned route of the fire main crossed a large concrete apron that was a main access route for goods in and out of the site, as well as to the rest of the business park, and which therefore needed to remain operational.
Drilling
The requirement to run 80m of 315mm HDPE pipe without closing the apron meant that a typical trenching solution was out of the question – not only would it be extremely difficult to manage whilst keeping traffic flowing, but the reinstatement required to bear the weight of the large articulated vehicles using the apron would be prohibitively expensive. Lindum were therefore looking for the best trenchless pipeline solution available.
“I would like to thank Mole Group for their flexible and dynamic approach to a recent project at Greggs. Working around programme problems and a busy site they brought a great team who carried out the work safely and professionally. We would definitely use Mole Group again on future projects.”
On site: The Mole Utilities team provided an initial estimate based on a remote survey of the location and ground conditions, and followed up by on onsite survey from one of our senior engineers to confirm our proposed programme of works and firm up the quote. Based on the ease of site access (which isn’t always a given on this sort of project), the distance and diameter of pipe required and the prevailing ground conditions, the Mole team recommended directional drilling, using our specialist Astec directional drill. Once mobilised to site, we found that the job was further complicated by the pockets of running sand that existed under the apron, but our skilled, experienced drilling team were able to compensate for these conditions without losing time or incurring additional costs.
Completion: The contract was completed successfully in just a couple of days on site, handing over the full run of HDPE pipe ready for commissioning as fire main on time and in budget. Most importantly, the site remained open and operational throughout.