Lang Lang Kindergarten

Developer	VSBA’s Kinders on Schools (KOS) program
Client	Grove Group
Location	Lang Lang, South Gippsland, VIC
Solution	The Helical Pile
Scale	91 piles
Timeframe	September 2025, 2 days on site

The Stake

The VSBA’s Kinders on Schools program runs to a fixed sequence: foundations in, then the modular building is placed on top. For Grove Group, that meant the ground had to be ready inside a genuinely tight window, on a South Gippsland site where the soil itself was working against a fast install rather than helping it along.

The Challenge

The site sat in a medium-dense, moist sand profile, ground that’s workable but not forgiving. A concrete bored pier was technically an option, but in loose, moist sand a pier excavation risks the hole collapsing in on itself before concrete can be placed, which is exactly the kind of delay the program couldn’t absorb. A screw pile avoids that failure mode entirely; it wedges into the sand as it’s driven, rather than relying on an open excavation staying open. On top of the soil risk, FTA hadn’t been provided with any soil resistivity data, information that would normally come from the client, needed to confirm how corrosive the ground would be over the life of the piles.

The Approach

Because the loads on the job had been set by the VSBA’s own consulting engineer, FTA’s lead engineer carried out a full independent review to verify those figures before installation began, rather than installing to someone else’s numbers untested. With no resistivity data available, FTA ran its own soil resistivity test on site, standard practice when that information isn’t supplied, to confirm the selected pile could meet a 50-year design life in that particular ground. A four-person crew was sized specifically to hold the two-day program, working the medium-dense sand profile to place all 91 piles without the delays a bored pier install would have carried in the same conditions.

The Outcome

FTA completed the 91-pile install in two days, exactly as programmed, clearing the site for the modular kindergarten building to be placed on day five. Grove Group’s reaction, in Steve’s words, was one of genuine relief: getting the foundations done inside that window was what let the rest of the build stay on schedule.