Grouting

Bachy Balineau masters all grouting techniques for a wide range of applications and structures.

Grouting involves injecting a pumpable material (liquid, suspension, emulsion, mortar) called grout into a more or less permeable medium. The medium may be natural (soil, rock) or artificial (masonry, concrete). Injection is generally carried out by drilling into the medium to be treated.

The aim of this technique is to improve the characteristics of the medium being treated, usually by improving its mechanical strength and/or reducing its permeability by filling voids. Grouts can fill voids in the ground, cracks in rock, dissolution voids (this is known as crack-filling, permeation or filling grouting), and/or penetrate with displacement of the ground by displacement or fracturing (this is known as compaction grouting or solid grouting, and slurry grouting). Displacement grouting can be used to limit the deformation of structures that may be caused by excavations (galleries and tunnels, large urban excavations, etc.); this is known as compensation (settlement) grouting.

Application fields

• From the outset, underground excavations (tunnels) have been a privileged area for the application of grouting, both for waterproofing and for consolidation.
• Dams have traditionally used grouting to waterproof their foundations.
• Deep excavations often need a watertight base to limit pumping rates to acceptable levels.
• Grouting is also used to protect structures or reinforce their foundations (dykes, dams, etc.), to backfill old quarries and to contain materials and land that pose a risk to the environment.

The techniques used will vary according to the objectives sought and the nature of the land.

The injection computer chain

Ongoing quality control is a key factor in the success of grouting projects. For this reason, Soletanche Bachy has developed an IT chain to effectively manage the thousands of pieces of data from grouting projects, at all levels of production: project design (drilling layout, calculation of quantities to be grouted); control of the grouting plant (monitoring of pumps, acquisition of flow and pressure measurements); and technical monitoring of quality and production.

The contribution of these IT tools is considerable, because they provide all at once :

• Safety, thanks to greater rigour and precision in data acquisition and control of operations in the field;
• Quality: thanks to the power of summary and analysis tools: reports, graphical views, etc;
• Performance: increased production yields, and effective control that is compatible with the increasingly rapid pace of construction sites.

Our methods

Bachy Balineau and the Soletanche Bachy group are always keen to push back the boundaries of innovation with a view to performance and environmental protection.

We also offer an innovative biotechnology method that imitates the natural processes of calcification to cement the soil in place, while maintaining its initial porosity.