Nearly 700 trucks used in 34-hour continuous concrete pour

The construction of the new 56-storey City Tower in London required 5,000 cubic metres of concrete for its basement raft. This was done in a continuous pour using 680 trucks.

The pour was managed by Careys Civil engineering over a weekend 34-hour period. The operation was planned over three months in consultation with Transport for London so that it would cause the minimum disruption to London’s traffic.

The concrete was supplied by London Concrete, who transported it from their Battersea site to the London City Tower site, which is part of the One Nine Elms development.

Darren Potter, Carey’s delivery head, said:

“It was great to be a part of the largest continuous concrete pour in our history, completed non-stop over a 34-hour period, commencing late Friday night and finishing on Sunday morning. London Concrete provided a consistent, reliable supply of ready mix concrete to site over the weekend, which is vital to any time-sensitive project.”

The pour was part of a contract to supply 25,000 cubic metres for the One Nine Elms development, which includes apartments. Concrete has been used for hundreds of years and this large project demonstrates that concrete buildings and concrete flooring are still a significant part of 21^st-Century building projects.

Daniel King, the Managing Director of the One Nine Elms project, said that the concrete pour was made possible thanks to the day and night work of all the workers involved. All 680 loads of concrete were delivered without disruption and not a single load was rejected.