Category: Company News

After completing a successful nearshore site investigation project in Southern Ireland, Lankelma’s Sandpiper C-5 jack-up is on the way to the next project in France.

Reporting Engineer Chris Player has been with us for a couple of years. He is part of the engineering team, responsible primarily for data analysis and reporting.

… Continue reading

We’re exhibiting at this year’s Oceanology International 2018. Meet our team on stand D510 on 13th – 15th March at ExCel London.  … Continue reading

Eric Zon, Lankelma Managing Director, will be presenting at the Coastal Development Seminar held in London on 31st January 2018. … Continue reading

Joe Hobbs, Lankelma Technical Manager, will be speaking at Equipe Group’s Cone Penetration Testing in Geotechnical Practice seminar held at Brunel University on 30th – 31st January 2018. … Continue reading

The new rail facility at our head office is enabling us to further develop our rail-specific CPT rigs and equipment.

“CPT has been used successfully on railway investigations across the UK in recent years,” said Lankelma General Manager Chris Dimelow. “We have developed on-track plant and equipment designed specifically for investigations in the four main rail environments: track bed, embankments, tunnels and stations. This includes our CPT rail truck and our UK14 excavator-mounted unit.

“The facility will enable us to continue this development and also allow us to test and maintain our equipment more easily.”

Lankelma’s CPT rail units can be used with the full range of standard and specialist cones, can take samples and be used to install instrumentation. Provided there is sufficient reaction force and a power supply, CPTs can be carried out almost anywhere in the rail environment.

Our highly versatile excavator-mounted inclined rig solved the challenge of testing next to a road in Oxfordshire this summer.

UK21 carried out 35 CPTs, to a maximum depth of 25m, at the proposed locations of drainage culverts for the road, at angles of between 20° and 55°.

“UK21 was originally developed to carry out CPTs through reservoir embankments,” explained Lankelma Technical Manager Joe Hobbs. “However, it has far wider applications, particularly for inclined testing below buried structures, deep or shallow foundations and next to piles, to assess ground conditions and the potential re-use of below ground structures.”

UK21 fits onto the end of most excavator arms and can be tilted to allow CPTs to be carried out at any angle up to 90°.

“The CPT cone has been modified to allow the angle of testing to be monitored throughout the test and provide a repeatable relative stiffness profile,” Joe said. “In many cases, it is also possible to carry out horizontal CPTs along the course of the inclined test so that we can calibrate results to the equivalent vertical test results.”

Our jack-up platform Sandpiper is playing a key role on an investigation for a flood defence scheme in the east of England.

We have been commissioned by the BAM Nuttall and Mott MacDonald joint venture to carry out 13 overwater CPTs from Sandpiper, four of which will include seismic and pressuremeter testing, to target depths of 25m. Onshore testing will be carried out by one of our track-truck CPT rigs at 18 locations, eight of which include seismic and pressuremeter tests, again to target depths of 25m.

“These types of project can be quite complex,” said Lankelma’s Nearshore Manager Carlos Alvarenga. “They require careful planning to coordinate the nearshore and onshore teams, to ensure work is carried out efficiently and safely.”

Projects Engineer Paul Dimelow says asking annoying questions has helped him develop his career with Lankelma.

Paul took up the role of Projects Engineer in September, after two years as a CPT operator.

“I joined Lankelma in 2015, starting out as a trainee. I was a complete geotechnical investigation novice but was soon asking my new colleagues many (probably) annoying questions about what a CPT actually was and how it worked,” Paul said.

“Two years on – and MANY more annoying questions later – I am now working in the Project Management team, ensuring our jobs run as smoothly and successfully as possible. With the ever-growing demand for CPT testing, I am expecting to be kept very busy with many varying and interesting projects for many years to come.”

Paul said he really enjoyed his time as a CPT operator, which saw him work all over the UK – from the Scottish Highlands to central London.

“Every day brought a new experience, meeting different people in many different environments, but now I am looking forward to a more settled but equally-demanding role working at the heart of the Lankelma family.”

Hopefully Paul’s fellow office workers will be as willing as our CPT operators to answer all of his questions – it certainly seems to have been a good career development strategy!