Edinburgh St James – Bearing Pile Design

Edinburgh St James (ESJ) is one of the largest and most significant regeneration projects currently underway in the United Kingdom (UK). A retail-led, mixed-use development which includes a retail, leisure, hotel and residential offering, ESJ is currently being constructed in the heart of Edinburgh, Scotland. A case study from the Edinburgh St James project is presented detailing the design of the bearing piles on the project. The case study is centred on the pile rock socket shaft resistance and how this was the critical parameter for the pile design. The case study presents the results from a soft-toe pile test and shows how the test can be used to design more efficiently, to the benefit of the project. By undertaking a soft-toe pile test, the project team was able to realise significant improvements in cost, programme and carbon, ultimately creating greater certainty of delivery.