Omega Piles

Omega piles are a full displacement cast-in-situ pile system developed in Belgium in 1998. The unique drilling tool allows for the lateral displacement of the soil during pile installation. This method increases the lateral stresses in the surrounding soil, enhancing side resistance and increasing the overall pile capacity.

In combination with the low noise and vibration-free installation advantage of the CFA piles, the Omega system offers a foundation system with higher load-bearing capacity without the need for spoil removal. Such capability is essential for any project site with contaminated soils, where spoil handling and removal would otherwise be costly and potentially hazardous.

Since 1998, Omega piles have been used to successfully install several hundred thousand piles throughout Europe and North America. Malcolm is equipped to install 16 to 24-inch diameter piles to a maximum depth of 96 feet with its modern European fleet of high-torque rotary drilling rigs. Malcolm’s automatic monitoring system has been successfully used to install projects with a pile-by-pile design, resulting in significant cost savings for the owner due to reduced pile length and a reduction in waste from pile cut-offs. Static pile load tests are commonly performed for each project to calibrate design assumptions based on SPT or, preferably, CPT values with actual pile performance data. Compression loads of up to 700 tons are possible, and lateral as well as seismic loads can be transferred with embedded reinforcement elements.

Benefits of Omega Piles

• Increased load capacity in weak soil strata. Clays, silts, medium dense sands.
• Low spoils generation, controlled concrete overbreak.
• Real-time, continuous quality control of all installation parameters.
• Design data can be correlated to each pile installation, similar to driven piles.
• Pile-by-pile design enables fast and cost-effective foundation systems.
• Noise and vibration-free installation.
• Full soil displacement allows for an increase in load transfer values, resulting in shorter or fewer piles for the same loads.