BAUER Foundation Corp. (BFC) products

Construction in ground water is possible by retaining excavation pits with sheet pile, diaphragm and pile walls. Injections/under water concrete slabs or combined solutions enable a horizontal sealing. For the sealing of dams or dikes we offer you durable, economic and well proven solution systems with bored, grabbed or milled cut-off walls.

Bored piles are cylindrical bodies made of concrete (with or without reinforcement) which are installed in the ground by a variety of methods. They transmit high structural loads into lower, load-bearing soils. When installed in rows or in secant configuration they can form a supporting wall for an excavation pit or cut in the terrain, or block off groundwater. The length, diameter, material, shape and layout of the piles can be varied according to their intended use.

Diaphragm walls have a static and/or sealing function and can serve as cut-off walls for dams or excavation pits, as foundations or as enclosures of structures. They are executed as concrete or steel-reinforced concrete walls, built from ground level. They are considered very resistant to deformation and virtually water-impermeable. They are excavated in sections by duty-cycle cranes using suitable diaphragm wall grabs or cutters, with the aid of a stabilizing fluid, between previously fabricated guide walls, which serve primarily to guide the excavator, allow fluctuations in level of the stabilizing fluid and carry temporary loads from the reinforcement or stop end elements. When the final depth is reached, temporary or permanent stop ends are installed in the trench, the stabilizing fluid is desanded and reinforcement cages are installed. Then the concreting is carried out.

The idea of installing retaining systems without tie-back anchoring is almost inconceivable nowadays. Bauer revolutionized the special geotechnical works with its invention of the ground anchor in 1958. Excavation pits with no obstructive strutting have been the standard ever since. Today ground anchors are used to secure pile walls, sheet piles, Mixed-in-Place walls or diaphragm walls, as well as steep slopes, support embankments and quay walls. Installing ground anchors is a technically elegant, cost-effective and, above all, operationally efficient solution for many construction projects.

In general, undisturbed ground has sufficiently high compression strength, but only low tensile and shear strength. Soil nailing is a construction technique which is applied to increase and/or maintain the stability of soil mass by installing reinforcing bars or soil nails.

Why haul away soil and bring in new materials when the soil can be used for construction? The Mixed-in-Place(MIP)- and Cutter-Soil-Mixing(CSM)-methods developed by the BAUER Group avoid the need for labour-intensive transport coordination, cut costs, reduce emissions and so relieve the strain on residents in the neighbourhood. Both methods offer efficient, cost-effective and environmentally friendly alternatives in the appropriate ground.

Grouting is used in specialist foundation engineering to introduce the grout material (water with hydraulic binders and possibly additives) and solutions (soft gel, silicate gel) into the soil. A basic distinction is made between displacement grouting (compaction grouting, hydraulic fracturing) and grouting without displacement of the host material not involving ground displacement (permeation, fissure grouting, bulk-filling).

The Bauer ductile pile is a simple, fast and highly effective deep foundation system. The industrially pre-fabricated piles from high-strength ductile cast iron guarantee high quality and a safe foundation. To install the foundation the pile sections are joined to a pile shaft of any length without using special tools and then driven into the soil. Depending on prevailing soil conditions, the pile is constructed either as end-bearing or as skin friction pile.