A milestone for healthcare in rural areas

The new building is the result of a comprehensive strategic process aimed at securing long-term medical care in the Diepholz district. The decision to abandon the previous hospital locations and build a centrally located clinic instead is based on an intensive analysis of factors such as staff availability, quality, range of services, and economic efficiency. The aim is to consolidate care provision across an area of almost 2,000 km² and make it fit for the future.

A special foundation solution was required to ensure that these ambitious plans were built on a secure foundation.

Micropiles ensure secure anchoring of the floor slab to the building ground

The building ground consists of sand with low strength. In order to achieve the required load-bearing capacity, 753 micropiles up to 13 meters long were pressed into the ground under pressure using cement mortar. The approximately 200-millimeter-thick grouting bodies interlock with the subsoil and at the same time compact the existing soil. The pile heads are integrated into the reinforced concrete floor slab, which covers more than 12,000 square meters, and thus reliably transfer the loads to the subsoil. The drilling was carried out using the double-head overlay drilling method with internal drill cuttings removal, which stabilized the borehole during drilling. Accompanying test loads verified the load-bearing capacity of the piles.

Marvin Freier, project manager at PORR Spezialtiefbau, explains: “Due to the tight schedule, we worked with two machines and four crews in two shifts. This was a heavy burden on both the team and the machines. However, thanks to our experience and well-thought-out personnel planning, we were able to reliably meet the requirements for quality and adherence to deadlines.”