KlimaGrunn takes steps

Cautus Geo is part of the partnership working to develop a completely new method to significantly reduce CO2 emissions in foundation work in areas with quick clay. The method will provide precise knowledge of the strength achieved in lime cement piles.

The Norwegian Public Roads Administration, Bane NOR and Statsbygg are behind KlimaGrunn. They are working to further develop the technology and methods for measuring the strength of ground stabilisation. The aim is to reduce CO2 emissions by avoiding overuse of ground-stabilising materials such as lime and cement.

The innovation partnership is funded by Innovation Norway and is carried out in collaboration with Multiconsult, Cautus Geo and Norcem with Argeo as sub-consultant.

Tonje Helle from Multiconsult is the project manager for the suppliers. She tells the Norwegian Public Roads Administration that the project has come a long way.

The second field trial is currently underway. KlimaGrunn has installed 11 lime/cement piles at the construction site for the E18 West Corridor near Lysaker in Oslo. The strength and homogeneity achieved in the binder-stabilised piles are being investigated using seismic and temperature measurements.

- "We have further developed the method. Installing temperature measurement from inside the pile gives us a more accurate result than we achieved in the first field trial in August last year," says Atle Gerhardsen of Cautus Geo.

The temperature inside the pile is continuously measured and transmitted digitally. This means that the project can monitor the curing process.

- We can use the measurements to predict the strength development of the pile," says Helle, who adds that the project will now ensure that the piles are as homogeneous as possible in the field, i.e. that the binder is mixed evenly into the clay.

- "Measuring stability from the inside of each pile is an innovation in a Norwegian context. Reliable documentation of the strength achieved will make it possible to reduce the amount of binder," says project manager Eivind Schnell Juvik at the Norwegian Public Roads Administration.

In the autumn, KlimaGrunn will conduct a new test. It will be carried out at Bygdøy. Statsbygg has an ongoing project at the Viking Age Museum. The aim is to quality assure the method.

- Until then, we'll be working in the field and the laboratory, fine-tuning the measurement methods. Once the tests have been carried out and the results evaluated, our method could become a service available on the open market," says Juvik.