How Are Ground Beams Important To Piling Projects?
Ground beams are fitted into foundations early on in any project, and serve a crucial purpose - but just what makes them so important? Find out right now.
For many contractors who build structures that require strong and long-lasting foundations, piling is the way to go. The deep holes mixed with incredibly strong concrete are perfect for large building projects. There are many different types of piling from the rudimentary wooden renditions seen in many period English structures to the large concrete piles seen in most modern-day sky-scrapers.
In essence, the process involves boring foundations into the ground directly beneath the building's footprint. These piles then transfer the load of the building, helping to stabilize the structure on ground that may be weak or unstable. So, what are the top five deepest examples of piling foundations?
Standing at 546 meters tall, One World Trade Centre is comfortably the tallest building in America. Its foundations are extremely impressive as well, the concrete piles that make up the understructure are 150 feet deep.
Quite amazingly the Burj Khalifa, despite being the world's tallest building (828 meters), doesn't actually have the deepest foundations. Nevertheless, the 192 concrete piles have still been drilled down to a depth of 164 feet. The relatively shallow piles in contrast to the height of the building are likely down to the lack of earthquake risk and relatively low winds in Dubai.
Taipei 101 is a jaw-dropping 508.2 meters tall, which made it the world's tallest structure between 2004 and 2009. The foundations use 380 concrete piles which are all 1.5 meters in diameter. Amazingly these piles were drilled 262 feet deep making foundations one of the deepest on record.
This mega structure is 632 meters tall, making it the third tallest building in the world. The area around Shanghai is infamous for its large and unpredictable earthquakes and structures must all be able to cope with a large earthquake event. This made designing the tower extremely complicated for the architects and the engineers as the building would have to withstand huge forces. Their answer was to use 832 reinforced concrete piles driven 282 feet deep.
The Petronas towers are two identical 88-storey skyscrapers connected roughly halfway up by a footbridge. The towers are a mind-blowing 451.9 meters tall and were officially the tallest buildings in the world between 1998 and 2004. The really staggering thing about the Petronas towers is today, in 2022, they remain the world's deepest foundations, coming in at 400ft deep. 104 concrete piles make up the foundations and are designed to spread the load of the huge building as the land around the structure is notoriously unstable.
Piling is an extremely important technique when it comes to building super-strong structures. Therefore, finding a piling contractor that knows what they’re doing is extremely important to the success of your project. If you think you need to talk with some piling specialists, contact us today!
