More typically used to support and stabilise buildings, the versatile Helifix Dixie micro-piles foundation system has recently been installed at The Battle of Britain Bunker Museum, RAF Uxbridge, to support a statue of World War II hero, Air Chief Marshal, Sir Keith Park.
Due to the proximity of this new statue to both electrical and drainage services, a Dixie micro-piles foundation system were selected as a reliable and cost-effective alternative to traditional concrete foundations. These Helifix pipe piles screw into virtually any type of soil, quickly and easily, with minimal disruption, noise or spoil removal and would be easier to extract from the ground in the future, by simply being ‘unscrewed’.
Detailed ground investigations showed the area to have a top layer of made ground above clay and sandy gravels, with load bearing strata at around five metres. Four triple flight Dixie micro-piles were torque-driven to the design depth using the hand-held Helifix hydraulic drive head.
Each micro-pile was levelled and topped with an engineered steel plate; these were then cast into a metre thick concrete plinth to which the new statue was affixed.