Flying High.....Pushing Deep

What do you do if you have a job beneath a rail bridge, with no access in or out; full of piles that can’t be touched and you need some ground investigation? You call Lankelma and their Minicrawler CPT rig!

Recently, Lankelma was approached to come up with a method of testing the ground beneath a railway bridge on the CTRL. The ground had been capped with concrete and grout pipes were sticking out of the surface which couldn’t be damaged. The underlying soils needed to be tested before it was treated with ground improvement methods, and then tested afterwards to verify that the ground improvement had worked.

Because of the access problems posed by the sites location, Lankelma sent its 3.5 tonne Minicrawler along to do the job. It was craned down onto the site using an onsite crawler crane. Once the rig had landed, it had to move carefully through the maze of pipes that covered the floor. Due to the rig only weighing 3,5 tonnes, extra reaction force was gained by bolting the rig down to the concrete floor.

The Mincrawler was able to carry out 5 tests over the two day period down to a depth of 5 to 10 metres.

The Minicrawler is a versatile CPT rig. Due to its size, it is able to work on sites where a standard CPT rig would not be able to gain access. With its multi-angle rams, it is designed for slope and embankment work. The reaction force of the rig can be increased by screw picks in the soil, bolting it down to concrete, or by adding kentledge weights.