Normally when driven piles are used as deep foundation elements, there is a large amount of pile waste when the portion of the piles left sticking up out of the ground are cut off to the desired elevation. UK piling contractor, Balfour Beatty and Finnish company Junttan have created a system that attaches to piling rigs and cuts off precast concrete piles as low as about 4 inches from the ground surface. The cut pieces are then used as starter pieces for the next pile. Balfour Beatty calculates that each precast concrete pile delivered to the site represents approximately 90 to 130 pounds of CO2 released into the atmosphere. They estimate that implementing this system on two piling rigs to date will translate into 2,000 metric tons of reduced CO2 emissions per year. [Source: Construction Enquirer via ASCE SmartBrief. Image: Construction Enquirer]
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