- Highways
- 17 Nov 2025
Our M Group Highways civil engineering team is excited to have completed substantial piling works to support the Botley Bypass project, which we’re delivering in collaboration with Hampshire County Council.
Our M Group Highways civil engineering team is excited to have completed substantial piling works to support the Botley Bypass project, which we’re delivering in collaboration with Hampshire County Council.
The works involve 130 bridge piles, driven 21 metres deep into the ground and over 1,000 ground stabilisation piles required due to the poor ground conditions and working in a flood risk area with high-water table.
Our team are using two piling rigs with six tonne hydraulic hammers, to install the steel piles which weigh approximately 2,745 tonnes and when laid end to end, would stretch for nearly seven and a half miles.
During the Early Contractor Involvement (ECI) phase, our team explored the option of changing the design from augured piles to driven piles. In total, this has resulted in significant efficiencies, through a reduction in installation time, materials and temporary works.
So far, there have been significant carbon reductions on the project, through the use of Pulverised fuel Ash (PFA) concrete, which is a by-product of coal-fired power stations as a partial replacement for Portland cement.
We’re working closely with the Environment Agency and fisheries to minimise any ecological impact. To protect fish, we scheduled piling works to avoid their migration season as well as using nets to prevent fish swimming close to the piling works and monitoring underwater noise and water quality. You can read more about ecology on site in a recent blog.
Piling work started in mid-August and were completed in October 2025.
