Proceedings of the XVI ECSMGE

Geotechnical Engineering for Infrastructure and Development

ISBN 978-0-7277-6067-8

© The authors and ICE Publishing: All rights reserved, 2015

doi:10.1680/ecsmge.60678

Working platforms for tracked plant – an alternative

design approach to BR470 using hexagonal geogrid
mechanically stabilised layers
Plates-formes de travail d’usine de chenilles, une approche de
conception alternatives à une BR470 utilisant une couche stabilisé
mécaniquement avec une géogrille hexagonal
Mitul J Dalwadi*1 and John Dixon1
1
Tensar International UK
* Corresponding Author
ABSTRACT Temporary working platforms are critical for plant stability, efficiency and safe operation. The guide to good practice (BR
470), ‘Working platforms for tracked plant’ was prepared by BRE in June 2004. The prime objective of this guide is to achieve an accepta-
ble level of safety for piling and other tracked plant operations. The guide includes the option to use geosynthetic products as structural re-
inforcement. Designs based on this guideline often results in an excessively thick working platform. Extensive research has been carried
out on unbound aggregate layers mechanically stabilised with a hexagonal structure geogrid with triangular apertures. Based on this re-
search together with experience from the field, a load spread method has been developed as an alternative approach to the BR470 guide that
provides a safe but more economic design with a lower carbon footprint. This approach has been widely used on numerous projects in UK
for working platforms over weak foundation soil, sometimes including extreme loading conditions. This paper highlights the application of
mechanically stabilised working platforms on two projects with challenging geotechnical and loading conditions; Crossrail, Contract C310
at North Woolwich and a commercial development at Ipswich. The stabilised working platforms not only allowed the use of recycled mate-
rial but also reduced the thickness of working platform by up to 65% compared to a design to BR470. Thus mechanically stabilised work-
ing platforms designed with a load spread method empirically derived for hexagonal structure geogrids can reduce the cost and time of con-
struction and minimise or avoid the need to import granular fill, while still creating a sustainable, safe working platform for the tracked
plant.

RÉSUMÉ Plates-formes de travail temporaires sont essentielles pour la stabilité de l'installation, l'efficacité et la sécurité de fonctionne-
ment. Le guide de bonnes pratiques (BR 470), «les plates-formes de travail pour l'usine de camions» a été préparé par le BRE en Juin 2004
Le premier objectif de ce guide est d'atteindre un niveau de sécurité acceptable pour empilage et d'autres opérations de l'usine à chenilles.
Le guide inclut l'option d'utiliser des produits géosynthétiques comme renfort structurel. Conceptions basées sur cette directive se traduit
souvent par une plate-forme de travail trop épaisse. Des recherches approfondies ont été réalisées sur des couches d'agrégats non liés méca-
niquement stabilisé avec une structure de géogrille hexagonale avec des ouvertures triangulaires. Sur la base de cette recherche avec une
expérience sur le terrain, une méthode de charge de propagation a été conçue comme une approche alternative au guide de BR470 qui four-
nit une conception économique sûr, mais plus avec une empreinte carbone plus faible. Cette approche a été largement utilisée dans de nom-
breux projets au Royaume-Uni pour les plates-formes de travail sur des sols de fondation plus faibles, parfois inclus, conditions de charge
extrêmes. Ce document met en évidence l'application de plates-formes de travail stabilisées mécaniquement sur deux projets avec des con-
ditions géotechniques et de chargement difficiles; Crossrail, contrat C310 à North Woolwich et de développement commercial à Ipswich.
Les plates-formes de travail stabilisées non seulement permis l'utilisation de matériaux recyclés, mais aussi de réduire l'épaisseur de la
plate-forme de travail pouvant aller jusqu'à 65% par rapport à une conception avec le BR470. Ainsi les plates-formes de travail stabilisé
mécaniquement conçus avec une méthode de charge de propagation de façon empirique pour des structures de géogrille hexagonale peut
réduire le coût et le temps de construction et de réduire ou d'éviter la nécessité d'importer le remblai granulaire, tout en créant une plate-
forme de travail durable, sans danger pour le suivi du projet.

1395
Proceedings of the Institution of
Civil Engineers
Geotechnical Engineering 161
December 2008 Issue GE6
Pages 279–281
doi: 10.1680/geng.2008.161.6.279
Paper 14201 J. A. Charles D. Corke
Keywords:
design methods & aids/piles &
piling/temporary works
Briefing: Working platforms for tracked plant
J. Andrew Charles, Building Research Establishment, UK, David Corke, DCProject Solutions, UK
(previously Bachy Soletanche) and Hilary D. Skinner, Ramboll Whitbybird, UK (previously BRE)
If a piling rig overturns there can be a risk of casualties.
Working platforms are critical for plant stability, and a
good practice guide to the design, installation,
maintenance and repair of ground-supported working
platforms for tracked plant has been prepared. A
simplified approach to the design calculations has been
based on a punching shear failure mechanism. The
platform design is an integrated package, from track
loading through to geotechnical design.
NOTATION
cu undrained shear strength of cohesive subgrade
D depth of platform material
Kp tan
punching shearing resistance coefficient
L effective track length of plant
Nc bearing capacity factor for cohesive subgrade
Nªp bearing capacity factor for granular platform
material
R bearing resistance
Rc bearing resistance of cohesive subgrade when no
platform is present
Rp bearing resistance of working platform when
platform is sufficiently deep that bearing
resistance is unaffected by underlying cohesive
subgrade
sc , sp and sª shape factors; functions of W and L
W track width of the plant
ªp bulk unit weight of platform material
9 angle of shearing resistance of granular material
1. INTRODUCTION
Working platforms are critical for plant stability, and while
most ground-supported working platforms perform well,
overturning of rigs has occurred more frequently than it should.
Although serious incidents involving working platforms are
relatively rare, when they do occur there can be a risk of
casualties. A good practice guide for ground-supported working
platforms for tracked plant has been prepared at the instigation
of the Federation of Piling Specialists (FPS). A contract was let
by FPS to the Building Research Establishment Ltd (BRE) to
prepare the guide under the direction of a Steering Group
appointed by FPS. The guide was published in June 2004. 1
The principal objective of the guide is to facilitate the design,
specification, installation, operation, maintenance and repair of
Geotechnical Engineering 161 Issue GE6 Briefing
H. D. Skinner
ground-supported working platforms constructed of granular
material, so that an acceptable level of safety is achieved. A
secondary objective of the guide is that safety should be
achieved without unnecessary or excessive expenditure.
The guide is not intended to replace or reduce the designer’s
input, but rather to promote the implementation of minimum
design, installation and maintenance standards. The guidance
has sought to avoid being over-prescriptive, as this might limit
the scope for innovative solutions, and does not in any way
limit the responsibilities of those parties involved in the
provision and operation of a working platform, who must
exercise their own knowledge, experience and judgement.
2. GOOD PRACTICE GUIDANCE
Following an introductory chapter, the guide has four chapters
that deal with, respectively, site conditions, design, installation
and, finally, operation, maintenance and repair.
The strength of the near-surface ground is critical for the
design of the working platform, whereas for most construction
projects it is the strength at greater depths that is important.
The near-surface strength is unlikely to have been determined
in the site investigation for the construction project, and it may
be necessary to augment information obtained for the
construction project with further investigation specifically for
the working platform. The desk study and site inspection are
critically important, and should be carried out with the
platform in mind; it is particularly important to locate any
weak and variable areas. Care must be taken in backfilling trial
pits to avoid creating additional hazards.
The design of a working platform is a geotechnical design
process, and should be carried out by a competent engineer
who has full access to the health and safety plan, including the
desk study and all other site investigation information. The
quality of the granular platform material is crucial, and it
should be such that all the performance requirements, in terms
of compactibility, durability, trafficability and drainage, can be
met. Materials that will undergo significant crushing when
trafficked should be avoided for works of any significant
duration, because drainage may be impaired. Sometimes it may
be economic to incorporate geosynthetics to strengthen the
working platform as an alternative to using a greater depth of
granular material. A separating geofabric between a clay
Charles et al. 279
 Egan, Feest and Horgan

2013). Adapting these for working platforms usually requires unreinforced and reinforced platform depths have been
assuming a load spread angle (β) to reduce the imposed rig load considered for the following methods BR470, SP123 and
pressure throughout the platform. With little guidance on Okamura et al. (1998), for a granular platform on a cohesive
suitable partial factors, these are often designed in line with subgrade. A range of subsoil strengths were compared for a
permanent foundations and as a consequence can be typical working platform case, detailed in Table 1.
excessively conservative.
Table 1. Input Parameters for Design Comparison
Okamura et al. (1998) enhanced this model by analysis and Loading Conditions
formulating the bearing capacity of a granular fill overlying an Rig Loading Pressure ws 200 kN/m2
undrained soil. This provided a more realistic bearing capacity Track Width W 0.5 m
but included no option to consider geosynthetic reinforcement. Track Length L 2.4 m
Platform Fill Properties
2.4 Numerical Analysis Frictional Shear Strength ' 40°
Unit Weight  20 kN/m3
In addition to analytical and empirical models, it is possible to
Subgrade Properties
use numerical tools to analyse the complex failure planes and Undrained Shear Strength cu 20-50 kN/m2
bearing capacity. This can be undertaken typically using Unit Weight γ 19 kN/m3
bearing capacity or limit equilibrium software. Increasingly In each comparison the strength of geosynthetic reinforcement
Discontinuity Layout Optimisation (DLO) modelling is being was increased until there was no conceivable benefit to the
used to check bearing capacity. The indiscriminate nature of reduction of platform thickness.
the check allows realistic bearing shear failure planes to be
found for complex problems (Figure 4). More information on Figure 5 highlights the wide range of calculated platform
the study of working platforms using this tool can be found in thicknesses required by each approach with varying subgrade
Smith and Tatari who concluded that the DLO method was strength. For unreinforced platforms the Okamura et. al.
better at determining a greater number of failure mechanisms methodology generally results in the thinnest platform. There
including a formerly unreported rotational snapping of a thin is some cross over with the BRE 470 method below a subgrade
embankment (2016). strength in the order of 23kPa and equalling the SP123
thickness at 50kPa. For the BRE 470 and SP123 methods, as
expected, the reinforced platforms calculated are thinner than
unreinforced platforms.

The saving in platform thickness in BR470 is less than in

CIRIA SP123 due to its initial ‘unreinforced’ check.
Figure 4. Typical DLO analysis of reinforced bearing
capacity.
2.5 Empirical Methods
Empirically-based methods can be used for the design of
reinforced platforms. Some use performance databases to
determine the platform thickness and geosynthetic. These often
show large reductions in platform thicknesses compared to the
analytical approaches but are limited to the range of the dataset
(loading, shear strength, reinforcement products etc.). Similar
empirical methods have historically been used to determine the
thickness of unreinforced access roads (TRRL 1984), but the
conditions of repeated loading experienced by an access road
is usually not appropriate for a granular working platform and
this approach is generally not favoured by industry.
Figure 5. Minimum Working Platform Thickness Comparison;
UR – Unreinforced, R- Reinforced.
3. Design Approach Comparison
The variety of design approaches results in a range of
computed platform thicknesses. To illustrate this, the minimum

345

Figure 7: Geotextile wrapped shear trench under construction
4.2.1 Analytical Equilibrium
Figure 8: Simplified Extrusion Mechanisms with and without
shear trenches, adapted from BS 8006 (2016)
Extending from the extrusion check in BS 8006-1 (2016), the
following approaches have been developed to consider
reinforced shear keys to counteract the extrusion mechanism
beneath reinforced soil platforms. The equilibrium equations
are used to enable the following conditions.
 The trench extends sufficiently deep to cut-off or
ensure the remaining soft layer depth is stable.
Egan, Feest and Horgan
 The trench is wide enough to prevent the soft soil
breaking through the key.
 Alternatively, geotextiles or geocomposites can be
placed around the trench to resist the trench itself
shearing. This reinforcement should be strong enough
to prevent rupture failure, under the extrusion
pressure.
The following equations are in line with the simplified
geometry in Figure 8 and nomenclature BS8006. For a
platform of height, H (m), carrying an imposed load of 𝑤𝑤�
(kN/m2) all over a soft soil with limited depth, 𝑧𝑧� (m) and
undrained shear strength of 𝑐𝑐� (kN/m2), the extrusion stability
of the platform edge can be assessed by an equilibrium analysis
considering the stabilising shear strength (𝑅𝑅� ), boundary
interaction (𝑅𝑅� ) and passive resistance (𝑅𝑅�� ) against the
destabilising active pressure (𝑅𝑅�� ). No shear key trench is
required if:
𝑅𝑅�� + 𝑅𝑅� + 𝑅𝑅� > 𝑅𝑅��
(1)
Shear trenches with depth (𝐷𝐷� ) extending beyond the soft layer
depth (𝐷𝐷� ≥ 𝑧𝑧� ) are required to resist any net destabilising
force (𝑅𝑅� ):
𝑅𝑅� = 𝑅𝑅�� − 𝑅𝑅��
(2)
The trench should be checked for shear planes passing through
it, where the active earth pressure blows out through the trench
fill considering frictional shear strength (′). Should this prove
to be unstable, the trench width (𝐿𝐿� ) can be extended or it can
be reinforced by a geotextile wrap. The shearing stress can be
fully or partly resisted by a reinforcement, as long as this is less
than its design strength (𝑇𝑇� ) and pull-out capacity from BS
8006-1 (BSI 2016).
Shear trenches extending only partly through the soft soil layer
(i.e. 𝐷𝐷� < 𝑧𝑧� ), are designed to reduce the remaining effective
depth (𝑧𝑧�� ), to one self-stabilising. The equilibrium over this
effective depth can be checked with an adapted version of
equation 1:
𝑅𝑅𝑅�� + 𝑅𝑅𝑅� + 𝑅𝑅𝑅� > 𝑅𝑅𝑅��
(3)
Once extrusion below the trench is satisfied, the equilibrium of
the trench can be found by Equation 2 where net destabilising
forces can be resisted by a combination of the trench fill and
wrapped reinforcement.
347

4 CASE STUDIES
4.1 Crossrail C310 North Woolwich, London
Crossrail is Europe’s largest construction project
with £19 billion invested to help improve the capi-
tal’s rail infrastructure. Based on the provided infor-
mation by Hochtief Murphy JV, The North Wool-
wich Portal constructed as part of Contract C310 in
East London by Hochtief Murphy JV provides a
structure for the reception of the Tunnel Boring Ma-
chines (TBM) for the Thames tunnel driving from
Plumstead and a transition from the over ground to
the underground sections of Crossrail. A working
platform was required to safely support various Pil-
ing Rigs and associated plant within the North
Woolwich Portal over a length of 200 m for the con-
struction of the Diaphragm Walls, Secant CFA Piling
Walls and Rotary Bored piles
The ground profile varies across the area of work-
ing platforms. The upper crust comprises Made
Ground mainly granular material, underlain by allu-
vial clay and peat of variable thicknesses. Due to the
site constraints the existing Made Ground layer was
required to be excavated to achieve the necessary
head room for the piling operation and other site ac-
tivities. So the piling platform was required to be
constructed on the alluvium clay foundation which
can be described as a very soft to firm dark grey
slightly sandy clay. Based on the soil test results, an
undrained shear strength of 15 kN/m2 for alluvial
clay and peat material was adopted for the working
platform design. The design approach given in
BR470 is not applicable where the undrained shear
strength is less than 20 kN/m2. Thus an alternative
approach was required to be adopted to provide sta-
ble, safe and economical working platform. In 2012
the JV commissioned Tensar International to carry
out the stabilised working platform design. Extensive
research background for the stabilised granular mate-
rial with hexagonal geogrids and years of experience
in similar conditions meant that an alternative to the
BR470 analysis method could be adopted. Load
spread approach through the Mechanically Stabilised
Layer (MSL) was adopted to assess the thickness of
working platform over a challenging ground and
loading conditions. These rigs induced high track
loads including a Load Case 2 equivalent UDL pres-
sure of 355kPa. The MSL with three layers of hexag-
Dalwadi and Dixon
onal geogrids was proposed and constructed using
the available recycled granular fill (6F5 Capping). In
this instance, site conditions dictated that the MSL
layer incorporated a non-woven geotextile separator
placed directly below the bottom layer of geogrid on
the formation to provide the additional function of
separation, to control any upward migration of fines.
The upper 300 mm thick granular material was re-
placed with rolled concrete in accordance with the
client’s requirement. It was acknowledged by the
construction team that despite the presence of very
low strength soils and high rig loadings, the working
platform designed with load transfer approach and
stabilised with hexagonal geogrid was extremely sta-
ble and performed as required.
Bottom layer of hexagonal stabilizing geogrid placed on
top of geotextile separator
4.2 Stoke Quay, Ipswich
An apartment block and town house development
was planned at Stoke Quay, Ipswich, UK. The
apartment required an 18,000 sq.m. piled foundation
as the ground conditions were very poor. The cleared
site which has had several former uses was covered
with a layer of made ground underlain by sand and
gravel glacial deposits on geological strata. The made
ground could be regarded as cohesive having un-
drained shear strength of 30 kPa and granular made
ground with angle of internal friction of 28-30 de-
gree. The ground water regime was locally tidal and
considered at 1 m depth for design.
An initial design assessment was carried out ac-
cording to BR 470 guidelines with and without struc-
tural geosynthetics. The proposed thickness for non-
stabilised platform and with geosynthetic reinforce-
ment (Refer- figure 6) having short term tensile
strength (T ult) of 30 kN/m was 1135 mm and 900
mm respectively. A working platform thickness in
range of 1 m was considered uneconomical and time
1399

REFERENCES
BR470- Working platforms for tracked plant, 2004
Use of ‘structural geosynthetic reinforcement’– A BRE review
seven years on, BRE2011
Jenner C.G.,Watts, G.R.A, Blackman and The performance of re-
inforced unpaved sub-bases subjected to trafficking
Dalwadi and Dixon
Watts K. & Jenner C.G. (2008) Large scale Laboratory Assess-
ment of Geogrids to reinforced Granular Working platforms, proc
4th European Geosysnthetics Conf. Edinburgh 2008.
European Technical Approval ETA12/0530, Report number KI-
WA K76041 issued by Kiwa Nederland B.V.
Tensar Case Study reference-Ref 319 for Stoke
Quay_Ipswich_Piling_Platform
Tensar Case Study reference Ref 344 for Crossrail Working Plat-
form.
1401