SSAB Steel Pile Day 2018 in Oslo attracted many contractors and designers from the Norwegian foundation business

SSAB Steel Pile Day was held in Oslo April 19th this year. Since 2005 seminars and eventually the Steel Pile Day has been arranged for foundation construction experts in Norway. The auditorium in Holberg Terrasse Kurs- og Konferansesenter was filled with around 50 participants.

Jan Andreassen, Business Manager, SSE Tubular Infra, Norway, welcomed the participants with an introduction to SSAB. Antti Perälä, Technology Manager for SSAB Infra products, presented three Master’s theses that had focus on the tensile resistance of RD piles grouted in to the bedrock. Later he also presented end-of-driving criterias for SSAB’s micropiles. Several new products had been develop since last Steel Pile Day in 2016 this was presented by Sondre Smeland, Technical Manager for SSAB Infra products in Norway. Thomas Hörnfeldt from SSAB introduced HYBRIT-project and gave the participants insight to how SSAB is going to produce fossil free steel within 2035.

First reference case was given by Arne Eigeland, Vedal Prosjekt AS regarding an RD pile wall solution going from land into sea. Arne showed nice examples on how the piles were drilled through an old harbor front buried 8 m into the sediments. Both wood an concrete from the harbor front were penetrated by the RD pile wall. Geir Veslegard, Hallingdal Bergboring gave a very interesting talk regarding installation of very large diameter RD piles drilled all the way down to 70 m depth. This project is bearing the unofficial world record of deep piles given by the Norwegian Public Road Administration. Kjetil Eppeland, Løvlien Georåd presented RRs piles in S550J2H quality used for an apartment project in very sensitive clay. The piles where installed as friction piles down to 72 m depth. A concrete plug inside the pile was drilled away when the clay layer was reached, so the sediments could go inside the pile and mass displacement of the clay would be minimized.

Participants found it interesting to catch up on news and trends in the business. Especially the reference projects and experiences from executed piling jobs were found exciting. It is also appreciated to meet colleagues in the business, including suppliers, contractors and designers.