Hilton Hotel, Sofia

Alongside the standard programme of drilling and laboratory work, in-situ tests with the Louis Ménard pressuremeter were carried out. The method measures the deformation properties of the soil in its natural state, inside the borehole — without the disturbance that sampling and transport inevitably cause.

For loads of the order of a tall hotel building in the conditions of the Sofia basin this matters: the moduli obtained are closer to the real behaviour of the ground and give the structural engineer a sound basis for design.

The test results were also summarised in a separate publication. The project is part of the company's practice of surveying more than 200 residential and administrative buildings across Sofia and the country, among them hotel complexes in Pamporovo and Borovets, shopping centres, logistics parks and high-rise buildings.