The Nova Development

Location: London, UK

The Nova development is an 897,000 sq. ft. mixed-use scheme, located close to London Underground (LU) Victoria Station. It is currently under construction and interacts with the Victoria Station Upgrade (VSU) being undertaken by LU. The upgrade scheme involves the construction of a number of new tunnels and underground ticket halls. As such there were a number of complex interactions not only in terms of design but also during construction.

GCG has provided wide ranging geotechnical expertise throughout the design and construction of the development. Initially GCG specified and supervised the ground investigations. Advice was then provided to the structural engineer on the design of the foundations and the retaining system. Foundations of the development scheme included 336 large diameter rotary bearing piles, a further 251 bearing piles with plunge columns and piled rafts beneath the cores which all required detailed analysis.

GCG were also engaged to undertake complex soil structure interaction analysis to determine the combined impact of the Nova scheme and the VSU works on London Underground’s existing infrastructure and for Thames Water’s (TW) Western Deep Sewer (WDS) which also crosses beneath the site. Based on this work, trigger levels had been set which were used to assess movements as construction proceeded. These impact assessments were crucial in the planning approval process for the development’s go-ahead. GCG designed the monitoring systems used to measure the movements of LU’s infrastructure, the WDS and movements around the site. Throughout construction GCG reviewed monitoring data and participated in daily reviews for the two schemes. GCG have been retained by Robert Bird Group to assess the impacts of the construction of Nova East and Nova Place on the LU and TW assets and the Victoria Palace Theatre.