Stabilisation is the key

During this current economic crisis, every business is trying to maintain a level of consistency that will see them through the recession. Irish Trucker profiles the aptly named Staplestown Ground Stabilisation Ltd and speaks to company director Kevin Gibson about the business, these current times and the area they specialise in.

This machine is used for stabilisation

Unfortunately, the last 18 months has seen a number of businesses go bust, especially in the construction industry, but Staplestown Ground Stabilisation has maintained a steady flow of work that has ensured their safe future.
Having previously traded as Staplestown Plant Hire Ltd. (& previously J. O’Connor), which was established by Kevin’s father in law James over 20 years ago, the company underwent a transformation in 2000 as they branched into other areas of ground work, while the name was changed in January, 2008.

These days, the company is run by James’ son David along with Kevin and his wife Elaine. However, James still keeps a keen interest in the day to day running of the business. With 20 years experience in groundworks, it is easy to see why the Wexford based company has been so successful.

A tractor and spreader treating the ground

As the environment plays an ever increasing part in our everyday lives, the company realised that there was a need to utilise the amount of muck on a site.
“Soil stabilisation has proven to be an extremely cost effective method of improving soft, unsuitable soils into acceptable fill material. The stabilisation of weak ground in Ireland, by this process, is becoming more popular in recent years due to the obvious economical and environmental advantages,” said Kevin.
“The aim of soil stabilisation is to make ground that is unsuitable for development stronger, and by this we add such products as cement, lime, GGBS, Flyash or a combination of these and this ensures that the material is reusable.”

Road recycling is another unique area that Kevin, David and the staff of 20 concentrate on and this has been developed to cut costs on upgrading existing roads and is a relatively new process in this country.
“Road Recycling is a cost effective and environmentally friendly method of rehabilitating the road structure by milling up the existing construction and adding appropriate binding agents such as cement and/or bitumen. The traditional method would be to mill up the existing damaged layers and replace with imported materials.”
Staplestown Ground Stabilisation has a large customer base with some of the country’s biggest civil engineering firms on that list, while some of the current projects include work for Siac Ferrovial on the M3, for Clancy Construction at Dungarvan and work for Sligo & Cork County Councils on the road recycling trial.

A plate bearing test is in process

The company also has its own equipment with specialised machines brought in from all over the world to ensure all projects are done to the best of their capabilities, which has seen their reputation grow over the years.
Some of the machinery that the company has includes the Wirtgen Recyclers, which are now an integral part of the business and Kevin revealed that they have a full time fitter to ensure all maintenance is carried out on a regular basis.
“We have a wide range of machinery alright and it’s important that everything is well maintained. There is a fitter here and he keeps on top of things. Of the machinery we have, there is the WR2000, which has an integrated bitumen spray bar for use in road recycling projects and can also be used for typical stabilisation in lime/cement projects. The WR2400 can also be used for both applications of Soil Stabilisation and Road Recycling and is slightly bigger than the WR2000.”

A subsidiary of the company is Staplestown Plant Hire, which carries out all areas of groundwork, while there is a demolition sector in the business also.
“The company has not been involved in the demolition that long and it is an area that was decided to branch into. Most of the projects that we have worked on so far have been in the Wexford area, but it is something that we are looking to expand.”

A road recycling project in Sligo

Land surveying, plant hire and engineering services are other specialties of the company with the latter entailing the company’s technical team supervising during the construction of commercial or residential properties to ensure that all aspects of the Building Regulations have been complied with.
“Our range of plant consists of excavators from 3 tonnes up to 35 tonnes, rubber duck, wheel digger, dump truck, crusher, low loader, dumpers and rollers. All machines come with experienced, highly skilled, trained operatives at competitive rates.”

Kevin admitted that the business was going well, despite what it happening in the country to date this year, although he stressed that there would be no major plans made for the foreseeable future.
“Yes, when you look at what’s going on every day, we’re happy enough with the work that we have. I think you have to adopt a cautious approach to making any major changes for the time being anyway. Hopefully, the country can get back to where it was a few years back. I think everyone would like to see that.”