In Thorpeness, Suffolk, Berryrange Ltd installed 130 linear meters of sheet piling along the coast intending to protect homes from falling onto the beach.

The area had been undergoing rapid coastal erosion; 11 homes had already been recently demolished further along the seafront due to impending collapse.

Because of these conditions, the work needed to be carried out urgently with a quick turnaround.

However, the site came with a variety of challenging characteristics.

Access to the site was tight, with the only area possible to operate plant from being the beach itself.

We came up with a solution for this complicated access case by using our Movax Pile Driver mounted onto our on Kobelco SK350LC Excavator. This meant the piler was able to track along the beachfront to both pre-auger the ground and install the sheet piles.

Due to the proximity of the sheet pile wall to the residential properties, being erected at the base of the slope that the homes sat atop of, sensors were required to carefully monitor the intensity and spread of vibrations to not cause any damage to surrounding structures.

This project was featured on both ITV and BBC News – links to both stories are below.