New government school — STEM building foundations
62 bored piers (600 mm diameter) for a new two-storey STEM and performing-arts building on a growth-corridor government school campus. Reactive basaltic clay site with adjacent live primary playground and strict noise limits.
A new 850-student government school in Melbourne’s western growth corridor required bored-pier foundations for its new two-storey STEM and performing-arts building. The site sat on reactive basaltic clay with a shallow basalt founding stratum, an active primary-school playground next door, and the absolute program constraint that nothing could happen on the working side of the fence during school hours.
We installed 62 × 600 mm diameter bored piers to 7–11 metres deep, socketed a nominal 500 mm into the weathered basalt to resist the reactive-clay uplift forces on the pier shaft (see our reactive clay guide for the underlying engineering). Piling was restricted to 09:30–15:00 weekdays to sit inside the school’s recess-and-lunch acoustic envelope and completely outside pick-up and drop-off times.
Every pile received full AS 2159 documentation with CSL tubing on a 10% sample for independent Cross-Hole Sonic Logging. The principal’s structural engineer signed off the AS 2159 compliance pack within 48 hours of final pile.
Education projects are tight programs, tight budgets and unforgiving safety interfaces. A crew that respects the fence line and understands the acoustic envelope of a primary school campus is worth the premium.
Piling crew turned up on day one, inducted like tradies who had built a hundred schools, and worked the program like the slab date was their kid's graduation.
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