Franki Foundations UK Ltd

Let’s work together to create Strong Foundations for a Solid Future

Here at Franki Foundations, we want to provide you with great service at a great price. With over 20 years’ experience we can offer you a complete piling solution.
Our experienced management team and fully trained & highly motivated work force, ensures each team member makes a unique and significant contribution to your project. We operate nationwide, and are part of the multi-national billion pound Besix group.

Franki Foundation Key Competencies:

- Auger displacement, using our Omega and Atlas techniques (Spoil Free)
- Secant and Contiguous bored piled walls
- CFA (up to 1200mm dia)
- LDA Rotary (up to 2400mm dia)
- Steel Case Driven for both open and heavily restricted access sites
- Restricted Access & Mini piling solutions
- Rail Work

What Can Franki Foundations do for you?

- Work safely with excellent health and safety record
- Provide a non-contractual collaborative approach
- Offer early subcontractor involvement providing Value Engineering through talented in-house resource
- Provide you with a competitive edge through our in-house design
- Offer efficiencies though our strategic partnerships
- The comfort of knowing we are backed by a billion pound international main contractor
- Fixed price/all-risk schemes considered

The Project:

The proposed development comprises a single and double level basement forming part a major leisure complex development at the former NCP car park on Exeter Road in Bournemouth.

The Challenge

The ground conditions predominantly consisted of Made Ground overlying the non-cohesive Bagshot Beds. The requirement is to produce a retaining wall requiring minimal propping for the construction of the basement box. The scheme was additionally challenging due to the varying ground levels surrounding the site and the need to retain an existing gravity retaining wall running along Exeter Road.

The Solution

The scheme made use of 450mm, 600mm and 750mm diameter CFA piles installed to maximum depths of 20m.

Franki Foundations worked closely with the client and the temporary works engineers to design a scheme that required only a single level of temporary propping for the maximum dig height of 11m. The scheme made use of a careful monitoring and dewatering approach to satisfy the local authorities involved on the project. A technically challenging aspect of the project is installing full depth 16m cages into the piles in ground conditions which cause the concrete to cure almost instantly upon being pumped into the pile. To counter this effect Franki Foundations liaised with the concrete supplier to develop a bespoke mix which delayed this curing and allowed the installation of a 16m cage for up to 30 minutes after the pile is concreted.

The Project:

The proposed development comprises fourmixed use two to eight storey blocks, two being residential over retails, one to be a cinema and the fifth to be a hotel, together with a new footbridge across the River Great Ouse.

The Challenge

The ground conditions predominantly consisted of Made Ground overlying Alluvium into the granular deposits of the Felmersham Member. Limestone Bedrock of the Great Oolite Group was encountered at 4.0m below ground level

The Solution

A rock socket design was proposed into the Limestone after a series of trial bores and extensive site investigation on site. Piles were designed to be a maximum of 8.0m in depth, however it was the high loads from tension/shear and eccentric moments which proved as challenging as the 4000kN individual pile loads.

Franki Foundations worked closely with the client and the project consulting engineer to develop a piled solution which met the requirements of the project, while being executable with the preferred CFA pile installation method, this was critical to the client who wanted to avoid using a rotary bored method with casing due to the tight programme constraints. Pile diameters ranged from 600mm diameter to 900mm diameter and were installed with a Soilmec R625 piling rig for the increased pulldown force required to “bite” into the lime stone and achieve the up to 5m rock sockets.

The Project:

The Camberwell Campus are looking to construct a new ‘L’ shaped building to include studio space, classrooms, design workshops and student accommodation. The building will be 5 to 10 stories, consisting of a single basement level.

The Challenge

Ground conditions were predominately granular in nature consisting of poor quality Made Ground and Interglacial Lacustine Deposits overlying the more competent bearing strata’s of the Taplow Gravel and then the Thanet Sands formation.

The Solution

Based upon the excellent bearing properties of the Thanet Sands at depth and the high column loads, the most applicable solution would be a piled option through the weaker upper ground to penetrate the more competent strata at depth. Due to the cohesionless nature of the underlying ground conditions, CFA piles were considered to be the most economical and programme efficient solution over the alternative bentonite rotary piles.

A maximum excavation depth of 8m and the desire of the client to have a fully cantilever solution with minimal pile diameters, to suit both programme and basement space proved a difficult situation to overcome. Our highly skilled technical team developed a cantilever contiguous piled wall using 600mm diameter piles in conjunction with a tight excavation and monitoring system which provided an ideal solution to meet the requirements of the project.