Strainstall Middle East have performed bi-directional static load testing on a 2400mm pile for the proposed Metro Express for Gandhinagar and Ahmedabad (MEGA), in India.

The metro will connect the administrative capital of the state of Gandhinagar with Ahmedabad city. When completed, it will be 76km long, with 49 stations and a predicted usage of 2 million passengers per year. Built predominantly on an elevated structure, it will feature driver-less metro trains and an automatic fare collection system using Smart Card technology.

To perform the test, Strainstall used hydraulic jacks, strain gauges, displacement and pressure transducers and a data logger. A lateral load test was also performed using 11 in-place inclinometers. The main objective of the BDSLT was to proof load the test pile to its maximum load of 4300 tonnes, while lateral load tests were performed to a load of up to 5070 KN.