Some 17,000 piles are being sunk into the ground for the foundations of the new Agratas £4bn electric vehicle battery factory in Bridgwater, Somerset. 

The development of Building One – the first of three – is being undertaken by Balfour Beatty and two of its subcontractors, Synergy Plant and Toureen Plant, on behalf of principal contractor Sir Robert McAlpine.

National Pile Croppers has been commissioned to supply and support an array of hydraulic pile croppers to work on the development.

Agratas is the global battery business of the Tata Group. It designs, develops and manufactures high performance battery systems for multiple applications.

The company’s new UK EV giga battery factory in Bridgwater is expected to produce 40GWh of battery cells a year, enough to supply approximately 500,000 electric cars. Once operational, it will be one of the largest in Europe, and will initially make batteries for Jaguar Land Rover vehicles including the Range Rover, Defender and Jaguar brands – Jaguar Land Rover is part of the Tata Group – as well as other brands. It is estimated that the factory will supply 40% of the UK domestic EV market by the end of 2027.

Sir Robert McAlpine was awarded the contract for the pre-construction work on the former Royal Ordnance factory site. Under the phase one proposals, Building One will be constructed at the western edge of the site. The majority of the building will be devoted to battery cell manufacturing and will also include staff welfare facilities. A separate building will be constructed to the east, housing the electrolyte used to construct the lithium batteries, and a new substation which will be needed to power the gigafactory (on top of the ongoing upgrades to Bridgwater’s own power grid).

Construction will be completed in phases, with battery production expected to begin in 2027. The project is estimated to be worth around £4bn, with Building One set to cover 244,710 sqm of developments.  Due to the time scale of the project, as well as its sheer size, specialist subcontractors have also been retained. These include Balfour Beatty, Synergy Plant, groundworks contractor Kelston Sparks and Toureen Group.

The sheer size of Building One and the two other developments, and the speed of construction that is planned, has meant that a huge number of concrete piles are being installed. These are of a variety of sizes and designs depending on the specific use of the pile.  National Pile Croppers was engaged directly by Balfour Beatty via Synergy Plant and Toureen Plant to supply the necessary pile cropping equipment.

Thousands of concrete piles are in the ground so far, with thousands many more to follow.  Synergy Plant has been using a Power Cropper, while Toureen Plant has six Power Croppers, two Multi Bar croppers and a PC400. The equipment is being put to the test, working around the clock to keep on schedule.

The piles that have been cropped so far are 275mm pre-cast, with the piling mat for Building One being roughly  1,000 metres by 750 metres. When the work is completed on Building One, the contractors will move onto Building Two, which is currently at the groundworks stage. In addition to the pile croppers, the contractors are also trialling a new tool from National Pile Croppers that nibbles at the concrete piles prior to cropping where the gaps between piles is particularly tight.

The Power Cropper is currently proving to be the all-round workhorse on the development, being used by both Synergy and Toureen Plant. Made of lighter, stronger high-grade steel, it is small and light enough to be moved around site efficiently yet its two rams can power the jaws through piles up to 300mm diameter. Hydraulic control boxes ensure the two jaws operate in unison to reduce trimming work at finish level.

The Power Cropper can also be used to reduce the piles in sections of one metre or more at a time, cutting straight through the reinforcement, allowing the site to be quickly cleared. The Power Cropper can also be used to reduce the pile in small sections, leaving the rebar intact.

National Pile Croppers expects that it will take until nearly the end of the year to complete the cropping of all 17,000 concrete piles, but so far, so good.

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