Basement Geology

Building a new community hub at the Old Natwest building in the centre of Chipping Norton is starting to feel very real now! A mobile drilling rig was brought in to drill two boreholes to establish the underlying geology in the basement where we are lowering the floor to achieve consistent level floors from front to back. There were a few challenges along the way.

Getting the 600kg rig into position in the basement with no rear access meant we had to plan a route through the front door, open up a back wall, build a temporary ramp down to the garden at basement level and open up a hole in the timber floor over, to enable the rig to be stood upright. Hours of careful planning came to fruition when the rig was successfully manoeuvred along the tortuous route and into position.

The ground investigations will include two 8m deep boreholes with in situ sampling and testing to determine ground conditions within the basement floor. Five additional trial holes will be dug by hand to a depth of 1.8m to investigate the level of the bedrock clay. Laboratory soil tests will be carried out to classify the shrinkage potential of the shallow soils.

St Mary's Church is redeveloping the old Natwest building as a community hub, providing a much needed community support centre in Chipping Norton. The Branch, as it is now called, will provide a range of community rooms and functions across four floors, of which three will be served with a new lift.Current floor levels are fragmented and a major part of the challenge of the build will be to rationalise the floor levels to ensure full access to three levels to people of all abilities.

Read more about the design proposals in our blog.