Wagstaff Piling was contracted by Hutchinson Builders to design and construct the foundation and retention piles for the new 53 storey tower at The Star Casino at Broadbeach, Gold Coast. The structure consists of a single tower with eight podium levels and fifty-three hotel/residential levels. This produces compression and tension loads upwards of 75 MN and 10MN respectively. A bored pile method under a bentonite/polymer slurry was designed, installed and certified by Wagstaff Piling for the main foundations.
The 1800mm diameter bored piles were drilled 55m deep. The general subsurface conditions were soft to hard sands/silty interbedded with sand and gravels up to 40m followed by varying strength meta-siltstone rock. Wagstaff’s bentonite/polymer slurry design was ideal for these conditions. Extensive testing was conducted using High Strain Dynamic Testing providing a comprehensive assessment of the pile including shaft resistance with depth, the mobilised end resistance, pile stresses and pile integrity.
Wagstaff installed steel piles for the concrete boom pump as well as sheet piles to facilitate the tower’s construction. The sheet piles were installed for the retainment of the main core, water tanks and lift over run. Wagstaff Piling proposed and delivered the inventory management, QA and testing for the project. This was of great benefit to the client as it enabled problems to be swiftly dealt with. This mitigated delays to program or disruptions to the public using the current Star Gold Coast facilities.
Wagstaff also designed and constructed ground improvement techniques being 250mm jet grout columns in low headroom conditions. Due to the tight site conditions Wagstaff’s small rotary rig with its great range of mast positions and inclinations, thus permitting operation in small spaces and maintaining a high performance, made it ideal for this application.
