Houses built on piles to overcome challenging ground conditions.

The Monkton development involves the construction of 36 residential dwellings on a 1.3-hectare site. The site is situated in Monkton, Kent. K5 Construction were engaged under sub-contract to deliver enabling works, cut & fill, drainage & infrastructure, house foundations, hard standings and roads.

The development sits on a plot of land with no previous use. The land was a grassed area surrounded by mature trees and hedgerows. Initially K5 supported the Archeological team with the site strip. Kent County Council requested that the site was stripped to a minimum depth of 800mm. Trenching studies carried out by the Archaeological Team had discovered artifacts from Saxon times including masonry and stonework for a former Blacksmith compound.

The ground across the site from 300mm depth consisted of a clay-sand mix. During the winter months this became very boggy with a 70% water retention.

Following the archeological strip of the site the ground was metre lower than it needed to be for construction. This ground was required to be made up to the specified levels, however we were unable to simply replace the material we had removed as the CBR values fell well below the requirement. We suggested that stabilising materials were utilised to bring the ground back up the required levels.

The solution provided by K5 Construction proved to be a huge saving for the client and meant that works could proceed at pace with the company mechanically mixing the material and compaction as they went. Once the ground was made up to level, the footings could be easily dug and poured as normal.

K5 also provided a solution to the overflow gully to the east boundary by suggesting a catchment sump. The gully would fill during the winter months but fallen foliage and sediment would clog the outlet. K5 suggested the catchment sump ahead of the outlet to retain the sediments and floating material. The sump could be emptied periodically. Once constructed the sump worked beautifully. This allowed water to drain from the ground more effectively reducing the retained ground water across the site.

Further to the above solutions being employed K5 were able to move forward with the project. All footing and oversites were completed ahead of schedule along with drainage and access roads.