Lower Thames Crossing: Utility Realignment Works

SOCOTEC’s Ground Investigation team has been working on the Lower Thames Crossing, a major government funded Infrastructure project whereby a new twin bored tunnel will be created under the Thames to help relieve the volume of traffic on the Dartford Crossing.

The Lower Thames Crossing project will bring considerable benefits to the local communities and the country as a whole. The crossing will act as a new key transport route across the Thames, helping to reduce the volume of traffic on the roads. It will also bring new work and development opportunities to the areas along the proposed route.

Project details

The scope of works was developed with by the client with consideration to working with the Utility providers, and involved collaborative working with each utility provider, SOCOTEC’s principal contractor, Balfour Beatty, and the client, Lower Thames Crossing, prior to works beginning.

The works were completed over two phases; the first phase ran from August 2020 to December 2020 and the second phase ran from July 2021 to May 2022 and consisted of approximately eighty 5m – 35m deep cable percussive, rotary and dynamically sampled boreholes, spread over the entire transect of the proposed route. The data collected by SOCOTEC was used to provide information to the various utility providers whose services will have an interface when the main Lower Thames Crossing Route is constructed, and will enable them to design a new route for existing services to minimise disruption during the construction phase of the Lower Thames Crossing structure.

Over the course of the works SOCOTEC submitted over thirty factual and interpretive reports to the various utility providers – an achievement that the team were extremely proud of.

Building relationships

SOCOTEC’s working relationship with Balfour Beatty and Lower Thames Crossing has been extremely positive, with all parties working well together in the planning, fieldwork, reporting, and account close out stages. SOCOTEC has worked with Balfour Beatty and Lower Thames Crossing on numerous projects prior to these works and continues to have a strong professional relationship with both.

Scope of works

• Rotary Cored boreholes
• Cable Percussive boreholes
• Window Sampling boreholes
• Borehole installation
• Geotechnical and environmental testing
• Factual and Interpretive reporting.