HIPL X L&T: A Journey of Pace & Modernity

Built by the top civil construction companies in India, modern superstructures depend on sophisticated and calculated geotechnical solutions such as diaphragm walls and anchoring, providing them with a dependable and long-lasting foundation.

After all, the quality truly pays off! This is a shared belief between Heritage Infraspace (India) Pvt. Ltd. (HIPL) and Larsen & Toubro (L&T) Construction, two leading names among the construction companies in India.

This has paved the way for a journey of modernity and paced engineering. Discover all details about it below.

The Client: L&T Construction, making India futureproof

With operations in over 50 countries, L&T Construction has held a customer-focused and sustainability-conscious approach towards civil engineering for over eight decades.

With expertise in infraspace engineering, L&T Construction provides excellence with its forward and well-researched infrastructure solutions. As a leading construction company in India, they firmly believe in sustainable and top-quality results to make the construction of our civilization forever marvellous.

Mumbai Coastal Road Project, the Central Secretariat Integrated Buildings, Ahmedabad Metro, the Statue of Unity, and the Baha’i Temple are a few gems of the L&T Construction.

The Projects:

With L&T Construction, HIPL took charge of diaphragm wall construction for deep basements and underground metro railway station projects and provided piling and anchoring solutions for the following projects:

Metro Projects:

Ahmedabad Metro

Connecting the four corners of Ahmedabad, this metro corridor runs for over 40.03 km in length, out of which approximately 6.5 km lies under the surface. It took HIPL around 4-5 months for its diaphragm wall construction.

Kochi Metro

With over 300 piles stretching from Aluva to Kalamaserry, the construction work for the Kochi metro project began in 2019. And within a tenure of 6 months, HIPL successfully completed the piling process. A 1000/1200 MM diameter pile was placed in the soil for the project.

DMRC Chattarpur station and Chattarpur Mandir Metro

Under the latest venture with L&T Construction, the DMRC Chattarpur station and Chattarpur Mandir metro are under construction in Delhi.

Deep basement projects:

The Central Vista

Being one of the best diaphragm wall construction companies in India, HIPL was awarded the Central Vista project under L&T Limited.

Where a 600 to 800 mm concrete diaphragm wall that stretched over 1500 running metres, was constructed within a time frame of 6 months. The solutions provided also involve soil anchoring at a differentiation of 2.5 metres.

The Challenges:

The key challenges encountered by the HIPL team while working on these projects were diverse and constantly changing. There is a handful of them listed under the following heads:

Obstacles at the metro construction site:

The biggest concern for any metro infrastructure company in India is that these metro lines are to be built amidst bustling areas of a city. This further impacts smart construction solutions with:

Disturbing traffic

Areas with a high influx of traffic and frequent vehicular commotion are not the best-suited construction site for diaphragm walls, particularly for metros. With regular disturbances from traffic, the transport of raw materials and machinery can be affected.

Likewise securing the entire stretch of the excavation site and diverting the traffic was important.

Underground existing structures

The chances of encountering existing underground structures rise exponentially in the interior parts of a city. Such was the case for the above-mentioned metro projects with L&T.

This range from existing diaphragm walls to drainage pipes. Such a situation calls for smart construction solutions. In most cases, the excavated structure could either be removed or strategically broken down as and when required. While others call for engineering expertise to develop an adjourning diaphragm wall along with the existing structure.

Water leakage threats

Drainage might seem trivial but is among the top challenges faced by engineers of every infrastructure company in India. Since any kind of water leakage can harm the diaphragm wall and the metro structure in the long term, ensuring that the construction is fully waterproof was essential.

Overhead cables

For places like the national capital Delhi, overhead cables turn out to be a major challenge for HIPL. Along with being in the way of the construction and causing delays, they pose the additional threat of accidents.

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Are Diaphragm Walls And Retaining Walls Different?

A common question our civil engineers encounter in conversations with people within and related to the construction industry, is the difference between a retaining wall and a diaphragm wall.

The idea of retaining walls is simple, a solid wall used to restrain masses of soil from falling off a slope or the edge of an excavation. And when it comes to deep basement construction, it is required to resist the lateral pressure of the soil from crashing into the excavated cavity where people and machinery are building the underground space.

While diaphragm retaining wall construction helps build multi-level basements for residential and commercial projects and underground metro and subway stations.

Let’s dig deeper to understand the difference better.

How do Retaining Walls work?

A retaining wall is used to retain the backfill against excavation. The whole excavation is made for the structure and then the retaining wall is constructed. There are 4 common types of retaining walls that do this.

1.) Gravity retaining walls: Gravity retaining walls prevent sliding and toppling of soil and resist the lateral pressure behind them with the use of gravitational force of their own weight. They are usually built of bricks, concrete blocks or cast-in-situ concrete with a wider base and sloped faces.

2.) Cantilever retaining walls: Cantilever walls are L-shaped or T-shaped foundational walls, built with the footing or base slab beneath the backfill. The vertical pressure from the soil is transferred onto the base of the structure and the wall in the centre, forming the T shape and preventing the soil from crashing into the excavated area.

3.) Embedded retaining walls: Extending deeper than the site excavation, the embedded retaining walls take advantage, at least partly, of counteracting the active earth pressure being exerted on the wall above. They are used to construct near-surface underground structures, such as basements, car parks and metro stations.

4.) Reinforced retaining walls: Reinforced soil retaining walls, sometimes referred to as mechanically stabilised earth walls, are constructed using layers of geo-grid to reinforce the soil into a stabilised mass. This increases the bearing capacity of the wall, along with its resistance to differential settlement.

Are retaining walls and diaphragm wall construction the same?

A diaphragm wall is a type of retaining wall. As a matter of fact, a diaphragm wall construction can be a type of cantilever, embedded, or even a reinforced soil retaining wall.

Diaphragm walls are reinforced concrete walls built in the ground to provide support to the structure to be built above and act as walls for the deep basement space to be built later on.

They act as the cut-off walls for the excavated area of the site, providing a strong foundation to the surface and enclosing the structure while resisting the soil pressure from the other side.

In construction sites with collapsible soil or where the feasibility of deep excavations is as good as none, developers must opt to build a diaphragm wall. Diaphragm walls can be constructed up to the required depth and then excavation can be started so that soil would not collapse.

So basically, what diaphragm walls do is ‘retain’ the soil from collapsing, while the required excavation and construction of deep basements take place.

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Building Engineering Marvels with One of the Best in the Industry, One Foundation at a Time!

Building engineering marvels with one of the best in the industry, one foundation at a time!

As pioneers of smart geotechnical solutions like diaphragm wall construction, Heritage Infraspace Private Limited (HIPL) holds a legacy of providing a strong and dependable foundation for modern superstructures of India along with the top construction companies in India, and Shilp Group is a leading name among them.

With over 40+ residential and commercial projects, the Shilp group has trusted HIPL with the deep basement projects at signature locations in Ahmedabad.

Learn all about the projects, the challenges faced by HIPL and the solutions developed to positively counter them.

The Client: Shilp Group, builders of excellence.

A name synonymous with quality and integrity, Shilp group has been the master of modern infrastructure. Being among the top construction companies in Ahmedabad, it is known for innovating the real estate industry with its residential and commercial properties that run over 75 lakhs sq. ft.

With a heritage of 18 years, the Shilp group has been the obvious choice in real estate when it comes to creating comfortable, stylish and better living spaces on the foundation of trust, safety, innovation and premium quality.

These core values resonate with HIPL deeply and led to the successful completion of the multi-basement diaphragm wall construction for a few signature Shilp projects.

The Projects: Symbols of trust

From diaphragm walls in dams to the ones for deep basement construction, HIPL has successfully completed multiple projects that hold superstructures of the contemporary world. And with the Shilp group, HIPL has worked on the following projects:

Residential project

1. Shilp Serene

Located in the heart of S.P. ring road, Shilp Serene is a two-basement urban infrastructure with a unique locational advantage. HIPL started the project in the year 2022 and laid down a diaphragm wall (also called D-wall) with anchoring that runs around 13m deep and 220 m in width. As the top diaphragm wall construction company in India, it completed the project within a tenure of 2 months.

Commercial projects

1. Shilp Epitome

This superstructure stands as the epitome of excellence that every construction company in India aims for. With a 14m deep and 200m wide diaphragm wall and anchoring, this commercial property supports a 3-level basement built in around 2.5 months. This project was taken up by HIPL in the year 2018-19.

2. Shivalik Shilp 2

This megastructure has a 3-level basement constructed in the year 2017. HIPL laid down a diaphragm wall along with anchoring within 2.5 months. The diaphragm wall runs 18m deep and 250m wide supporting this 13-floored business hub.

3. Shilp Business Gateway

The Shilp Business Gateway project was taken over by HIPL, the top D-wall construction company in India. It built a 3-level basement with a 20m deep and 229m wide diaphragm wall in 2021 within 1.5 months.

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Why Are D-Walls Becoming Extremely Popular with Construction Companies in India?

Diaphragm walls for top-down construction and deep basements have now become commonplace in the industry, and among construction companies in India. But how did D-Wall construction (another name for diaphragm walls) become a popular choice with civil engineers who are now confident to build towering superstructures with basements as deep as 5 levels?

Let us begin by understanding what a diaphragm wall is, how it is different from other traditional methods of ground engineering like Piling, and what makes it a desirable choice for deep basement construction.

What is a diaphragm wall?

Reinforced concrete walls built in the ground to provide support to the structure to be built above, and act as walls for the deep basement space to be built later, are known as diaphragm walls. They act as the cut-off walls for the excavated area of the site, provide a strong foundation to the surface and enclose the structure.

Piling – The traditional method of deep foundation construction

Piling is one of the oldest methods of building foundational bases for under-construction structures to transfer and manage the structural load on a deeper level. They are long, cylindrical structures that are made of either concrete, wood or steel.

There are two types of pile foundations used in building strong bases

1. End-bearing piles, that can transmit weight load directly to the deeper, stronger soil or the rock base of the site.

2. Friction piles, which transfers the load of the building to the soil across the full height of the pile, by friction.

Piling, a traditional method, is used when the structure above has heavy, concentrated loads and the spread footing won’t be able to bear the weight. So the building structure needs to bypass this layer and transfer the weight to the stronger base at depth.

While a diaphragm wall is constructed by excavating a narrow trench with a thickness ranging between 300 mm to 1200 mm, as deep as 45 metres underneath. It actually does the exact same job, and moreover, offers to act as a retaining wall for the basement, making the foundation stronger.

Yet, what makes construction companies in India choose diaphragm walls for basements?

Lower steel consumption

The cage walls made for diaphragm wall construction require lesser steel bars compared to constructing and inserting piles into the ground below. And in scenarios of unstable soil on the site, an additional casing is required on the piles, which may add an extra cost to the materials consumed.

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