Sixense awarded London Spire monitoring contract

Apr 21, 2017

Spire London will be Western Europe’s tallest residential tower, standing just over 235 metres tall, with 67 floors, and will offer unrivalled views across London and the Southeast.

As part of this development, Sixense have been awarded the contract to carry out environmental and structural monitoring works related to the construction of the foundations.

The structural monitoring consists of 110 retro targets measured twice a week from approximately 10 different manual survey setups to monitor the movement of structures around the site including 2 listed buildings of West India Quay’s historic waterside: the Arch and the West India Gate. Manual inclinometers readings, which are also part of the overground monitoring package are expected to start in November 2017.

On the environmental side, Sixense are assisting Bachy Soletanche in obtaining their Section 61 consent prior to the commencement of their works, and implement an environmental monitoring scheme during the construction.

The construction noise and dust emissions are now controlled by noise and dust monitors. In addition, a geophone has been installed on site to protect a Thames Water asset, and within the adjacent Museum of London Docklands, two vibration monitors ensure that the large collection of historical artefacts, models and pictures are not disturbed during the demolition and piling operations.

All the structural and environmental data is presented in our new Geoscope web platform including the recent new features: noise dose calculation, static web page including information on the project and the monitoring status.

Part of the strategy associated with winning the above contract was the ability to get involved in monitoring two new Crossrail Tunnels that pass directly under the site. We are glad to announce that we have now secured this work and our first monitoring project on Crossrail assets begins soon!

A total of four CYCLOPS Automatic Stations located in the Eastbound and Westbound Crossrail tunnels will be installed next month, which will monitor 200 prisms positioned on 32 tunnel rings for the next 18 months.

Sixense start critical pipeline monitoring project in Wales

Feb 17, 2017

Last summer, Sixense were awarded the monitoring of a gas main by Wales & West Utilities at Craig Cefn Parc, close to Swansea in South Wales.

Far from the busy and noisey London, on a quiet piece of land occupied by a few flock of sheep, 54 Spot Weldable Strain Gauges (18 sections in total) were installed along 600 meters of pipe.

This new gas main is a diversion away from the previous section which, buried in the ground, moved over the past years due to landslides causing the main to leak. This time, our client is keen to monitor the movements to ensure that any future deformation of the gas main that may happen in the next 5-10 years will be detected by our monitoring system.

Sixense awarded ‘London Super Sewer’ contract

Jul 29, 2016

Sixense’s Acoustic division has been appointed as Noise, Vibration and Air Quality specialist to provide comprehensive consultancy and monitoring services for the six main worksites of Thames Tideway Tunnel’s East section. Sixense are extremely proud to be a part of this prestigious project.

This contract is one more step towards the achievement of our growth strategy launched 6 years ago, with the creation of our acoustic division in London, with the support of Sixense Environment in France.

The Tideway East contract involves construction of two sections of tunnel and five large shafts which intercept the existing overflows of untreated sewage that currently enters the River Thames.

In total, the £4.2 billion project has 25 km of tunnel through central London and requires 24 worksites.

Sixense secure New Covent Garden Market work

Feb 25, 2016

Sixense have been appointed by Vinci Construction UK to provide a major package of environmental monitoring services during the redevelopment of New Covent Garden Market in central London.

The £2 billion 10-year project is designed to consolidate the 200 companies and 2,500 workers trading at the existing Market into a 500,000 sq ft new facility, making way for the construction of 3000 new homes.

The initial scope of Sixense Acoustic’s involvement was to develop a robust monitoring programme to ensure an adequate baseline was established against which potential impacts during the works could be assessed.

New Covent Garden Market, which provides produce for most of London’s restaurants, is to remain fully operational throughout the redevelopment works. During the planning phase of the project, market traders raised concern of the environmental effects of construction on their business.

To manage and minimise disruption throughout the construction works, Sixense Acoustic have installed and operate extensive environmental monitoring including 25 noise, vibration and dust monitors, combining both active and passive dust monitoring techniques.

Major Crossrail milestone accomplished

Jun 22, 2015

May 2012, Victoria and Elizabeth, the first 2 of 8 TBM’s start their 26 mile journey through the London geology.

Fast forward to June 2015, 3 years later, the news is that the tunnelling on Crossrail, is finally complete.

A major milestone for the Crossrail project.

From the wilds of Wallesea Islands to the congested Central London infrastructure, with real-time monitoring working continuously, Sixense has been pivotal in providing accurate and timely monitoring to allow engineers on all the Crossrail sites to make the informed judgements necessary to allow the delivery of this world class construction project.

Crossrail completion is expected late 2021, early 2022.

And to think that proposals for a ‘cross London railway’ go back as far as 1941…..