Our Specialist Piling team was engaged to support the construction of two new footbridges spanning the River Trent in Nottingham.
Project Background
- Appointed by Volkerstevin Ltd
- This scheme marks the flagship and final project to emerge from Nottingham City Council’s Transforming Cities Fund programme, which began in 2020 following a successful bid for over £160 million of central Government funding to support projects that promote inter-city connectivity and lower-carbon journeys.
- Our scope of works for the first phase, involving the larger footbridge, comprised the installation of 45 No. SFA piles ranging from 450mm to 600mm in diameter. These were installed using a Klemm 709-3G rig.
- The second phase, for the adjacent smaller footbridge, involved the installation of 5 No. SFA piles, also completed using the Klemm 709 rig.
- The main bridge structure was landed in place by Balfour Beatty in October 2025, using a CC6800 crawler crane, which rose 75 metres into the sky to complete the lift.
Challenges
One of the key challenges for this project was meeting the strict low bearing pressure requirements. To address this, the team piled on top of bog mats to ensure loads were spread as required.
Working within strict low bearing pressure limits, the team helped develop a bespoke pressure gauge to monitor loads, ensuring safe and efficient pile installation with zero disruption.The low pressure requirements arose due to the close proximity to the River Trent. Inter site move were conducted even with limited space on site.
Van Elle Solutions
The solution to the limited access on site was to change the rig from the Klemm 709 3G to the Klemm 709 to accommodate the limited site access. Additionally, efficient execution of the programme ensured that the use of bog mats did not present any issues on site.
Learn more about the scheme from Transport Nottingham here.