Santa Katharina, Comporta
A CLT villa complex on around 300 helical piles, in dune sand.
In Comporta, Rotopile built the foundations for a complex of CLT villas, on around 300 helical piles. The installation was carried out by a Portuguese-Finnish team, bringing together the experience of our operations in Portugal and Finland.
The site is sandy, in the heart of the Comporta dune belt, with pines and dunes to preserve. The CLT build called for a foundation just as light on the ground: little excavation and a low carbon footprint.
The strength of the solution was depth. With helical piles just 3 m long, good bearing capacities were reached where micropiles would have needed about 15 m. Less depth meant less steel, less cost, less time on site and a lower carbon footprint. In all, around 300 piles carried the loads of the CLT villas down to the firmer sands.
The piles were turned in by rotation, with no excavation and no concrete, preserving the existing dunes and pines.
The solution sat well with the CLT build: light on the ground, fast and low in carbon. And like any helical pile, they are reversible, they can be unscrewed, returning the site almost to its original state.
~300 helical piles · 3 m long · ~15 m needed for micropiles · dune sand · Portuguese-Finnish team
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