Month: June 2026

If you build infrastructure in the UK, you already know what a traditional foundation programme looks like. Excavate to formation. Set out. Build formwork. Fix reinforcement. Pour concrete. Vibrate, finish, cure. Wait. Strip formwork. Inspect. Move to the next one.

Each foundation is a small construction project in its own right. On a site with dozens of them, the process runs sequentially over weeks. It needs formwork carpenters, steel fixers, concrete gangs, and supervision throughout. It’s weather-dependent. And despite being one of the most repeated activities in infrastructure construction, it hasn’t fundamentally changed in decades.

We think there’s a better way. Not a theoretical one – a proven one, already in the ground on live UK infrastructure projects. This post explains how it works, step by step, so you can decide whether it’s worth exploring for your next project.

How the process works

Our approach replaces the traditional site-based sequence with an offsite manufacturing model. The foundations are designed, produced, and delivered ready to install – no formwork, no wet concrete, no curing on site. Here’s what each stage involves.

Engagement and scoping

We work with contractors from the earliest practical point in the project – ideally during design, but we understand that programmes move and conversations often start later. If you come to us with a set of loading requirements, ground conditions, and connection details, we can assess feasibility quickly and give you an honest view of whether our system is the right fit.

For applications where we already have a catalogue product – standard substation foundations, pipe supports, equipment bases – the design phase can be measured in days. For bespoke geometries or unusual loading conditions, allow a few weeks for design development. Either way, we aim to give you a clear answer on scope, programme, and budget early enough to be useful.

Computational design

This is where our process departs most significantly from the traditional approach.

A conventional foundation is typically designed with generous margins – a solid block of concrete sized to exceed the load requirements by a comfortable factor. It works. But it uses far more material than the structural loads actually demand, because the geometry isn’t optimised for the specific forces it needs to resist.

Our engineering team uses computational optimisation to design each foundation’s geometry around its actual loading conditions. Material is placed only where structural performance requires it, and removed everywhere else. The result is a foundation that is lighter, uses significantly less concrete, and is structurally tuned to its specific application – rather than being a one-size-fits-all solid block.

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This is not about cutting corners on engineering. When our substation foundations were independently tested at the University of Sheffield, the small foundations achieved eight times the required safety factor. The medium and large foundations delivered three times their anticipated capacity. Optimising geometry doesn’t reduce performance – it concentrates it where it matters.

Manufacturing

Foundations are produced at our Forge I facility near Scunthorpe using robotic manufacturing processes. Production is automated, consistent, and runs in parallel with your site preparation – so it doesn’t sit on your critical path.

The manufacturing environment is controlled, which means quality is not dependent on weather, site conditions, or the availability of specialist trades. Every unit comes off the line to the same specification, whether it’s the first or the sixtieth.

For projects requiring a large number of repeated foundations, this is where the time savings compound most significantly. At Usk Reservoir, where we delivered 66 pipe support foundations for Mott MacDonald Bentley, the combination of offsite manufacture and simplified installation accelerated the foundation programme by a factor of three – cutting eight weeks from the overall site programme.

Compliance and testing

Every foundation we produce is designed to the relevant Eurocodes – BS EN 1997 for geotechnical design and BS EN 1992 for structural concrete – with UK National Annexes applied throughout. The design standards, load cases, safety factors, and verification processes are the same ones your engineering team already works with.

We have validated performance through a comprehensive programme of full-scale laboratory and on-site testing in collaboration with the University of Sheffield’s ICAIR facility. The testing covered tension, overturning moment, and pull-out, under both controlled and real-world conditions. The results exceeded every requirement.

If your technical team needs to review the engineering in detail, we are happy to share design calculations, test reports, and the full independent validation data.

Delivery and logistics

Finished foundations are delivered to site ready to install. Because the geometry is optimised rather than solid, the units are lighter than conventional precast equivalents – which means lower transport costs, fewer truck movements, and simpler logistics. For geographically dispersed programmes (such as utility network upgrades or EV charging rollouts across multiple sites), the weight saving makes a meaningful difference to haulage costs and carbon.

We also support a warehouse-ready model for clients with ongoing deployment programmes. Foundations can be manufactured in batches, delivered to the client’s depot or warehouse, and called off as individual sites come online. This is how we work with Fastned, one of Europe’s leading EV charging networks — standardised foundations held in inventory and deployed on demand as new stations are constructed across their European network. Read the Fastned case study.

Installation

This is the part your site team will care about most, and the good news is that it’s simpler than what they’re used to.

The installation sequence is: prepare the formation, lift the unit into position, check levels, backfill. That’s it. No formwork to build. No reinforcement to fix. No concrete to pour. No curing to wait for. The foundation is structurally ready the moment it’s placed.

Your team will be familiar with handling precast elements. The key difference is that our units are typically lighter than standard precast, so the lifting is simpler – smaller cranes, straightforward lifting plans, and less time on the hook. On projects where this is the first time your team has worked with our system, we’ll have an engineer on site for the initial installations to make sure everything runs smoothly.

For a more detailed look at what installation involves, including how costs compare and what your site team needs to do differently, read our companion post: From sceptic to client: the five questions that come before every low-carbon foundation project

What stays the same

Switching to low-carbon foundations changes how they’re manufactured. It doesn’t change the engineering framework your team already operates within.

The same structural design codes apply. The same ground investigation and site preparation is required. The same inspection and sign-off processes apply on site. Your team handles installation using familiar precast handling methods. The same structural warranties and performance expectations apply. And the same project insurance and liability frameworks remain in place.

We are not asking contractors to adopt a new structural standard or a new site methodology. We are offering a different manufacturing approach that produces better-performing foundations with less material, less carbon, and less programme time – within the same engineering and contractual environment your projects already operate in.

Where it applies

This approach works across the range of concrete elements that infrastructure projects require. We have delivered or are currently delivering:

• Substation foundations for National Grid’s electricity transmission network – with 65% less embodied carbon, 70% less concrete, and validated performance through independent testing at the University of Sheffield.
• Pipe support foundations for Welsh Water’s Usk Reservoir upgrade, working with Mott MacDonald Bentley – 66 foundations, 560 tonnes less concrete, 70 tonnes of CO2 avoided, and an eight-week programme saving.
• Concrete sleepers for Costain’s work on the Northern Endurance Partnership CO2 pipeline on Net Zero Teesside – 40% less concrete and steel, up to 50% less carbon, and up to 10x stronger while being 60% lighter.
• EV charging infrastructure foundations for Fastned’s European rapid charging network – 60 custom foundations using 60% less material, with a 40% reduction in CO2, now standardised for ongoing deployment.

The common thread is high-volume, repeated concrete elements where offsite manufacturing and geometric optimisation deliver the greatest gains in cost, carbon, and programme time. If your project includes foundations, equipment bases, plinths, drawpits, or other below-ground concrete infrastructure that needs to be built at scale, this approach is likely to be relevant.

How to get started

If you have a project in mind and want to understand whether our system is the right fit, tell us about it. We’ll come back to you within 48 hours with an honest assessment of scope, programme, and feasibility.

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The UK needs roughly 213,000 new public chargepoints by 2030. There are about 87,000 installed today, the government target is 300,000, and the gap needs closing in under four years.

This isn’t going to happen one charger at a time. The model is shifting towards large-scale charging hubs – GRIDSERVE’s Super Hubs now feature up to 48 ultra-rapid bays per site, rapid charging networks are expanding across the UK and Europe, and the £381 million LEVI Fund is now moving from procurement into delivery, targeting over 100,000 new on-street chargepoints through local authorities alone.

For the charge point operators and contractors delivering this infrastructure, speed is everything. Every week a site isn’t operational is a week of lost revenue and a week the network isn’t serving drivers. The focus, understandably, has been on grid connections, charger hardware, and site acquisition.

What’s received less attention is what goes in the ground.

Every charger needs a foundation

At a single-charger level, this seems trivial. But at network scale, it’s anything but.

A large charging hub requires dozens of individual concrete elements: charger pedestal bases, canopy foundations, transformer pads, switchgear housings, cable ducting, and drawpits. Each one traditionally involves excavation, formwork, reinforcement, in-situ pours, and curing time. Multiply that across a multi-bay site and the foundation programme alone can consume weeks before a single charger is mounted. Every additional week on site is a week of prelims, labour, and plant hire – costs that compound quickly across a multi-site programme.

For on-street installations under the LEVI Fund, the constraints are different but equally pressing. Residential streets mean road closures, disruption to residents, and pressure to minimise the duration and scale of civil works. Extended curing periods and heavy lifting equipment are exactly what councils and their contracted operators want to avoid.

And across a national or European network – where an operator might be building dozens or hundreds of stations in parallel – the cumulative demand for concrete foundations is substantial, repetitive, and ripe for a more efficient approach.

The problem with how foundations are built today

CPOs and their construction partners currently have two main options, and both have significant limitations at scale.

Cast-in-situ concrete looks cheap at point of install, but the total delivery cost tells a different story. Each foundation requires its own mini construction process – dig, form, reinforce, pour, cure, strip – and the whole thing is weather-dependent. When you factor in formwork materials, specialist labour, plant hire, curing delays, and the site prelims that run for every extra week, the real cost per foundation is significantly higher than the concrete alone. On a 30-bay hub site, the sequential nature of in-situ work adds weeks to the programme and thousands to the budget. On a residential street, it means longer road closures, more disruption, and higher reinstatement costs.

Standard precast blocks are faster – no curing, consistent quality, and increasingly common in the EV sector. But conventional precast blocks are solid, heavy, and not optimised for the loads they actually carry. That means more concrete than necessary, higher transport costs (you cannot flat-pack a solid block of precast concrete), and a bigger carbon footprint than the application demands. They do the job, but they do it with more material, more energy, and more emissions than they need to.

What’s missing is a foundation system designed for the way modern charging networks actually scale: standardised for repeat deployment, lightweight enough for efficient logistics across dispersed sites, fast to install without curing, and low enough in carbon to match the sustainability credentials of the infrastructure it supports.

A smarter approach: standardise, store, deploy

We manufacture low-carbon foundations using computational design and robotic production. The geometry of each unit is optimised to carry its specific loads with the minimum possible material – typically using up to 60% less material than conventional alternatives, with a corresponding 40% reduction in embodied CO2. Every unit is Eurocode-compliant, manufactured offsite for consistent quality, and arrives on site ready to install with no curing time.

The cost impact is significant. Lighter units mean lower transport costs across dispersed networks. No formwork means no formwork materials or labour. No curing means no programme delays, which directly reduces site prelims and plant hire. Fewer and simpler lifts mean smaller cranes and smaller crews. For operators deploying foundations across dozens or hundreds of sites, these savings compound rapidly – reducing the capital cost of each station and accelerating the point at which the site generates revenue.

Because the units are lighter than standard precast, they cost less to transport, need smaller lifting equipment, and are simpler to handle – whether that’s on a motorway service area or a residential street.

But the real advantage for network operators isn’t the individual foundation. It’s the deployment model.

We work with CPOs to develop a standardised foundation design for their network – engineered to their specific charger hardware, site layout, and structural requirements. Once the design is finalised, we manufacture in batches. The operator stores the units in their warehouse and deploys them on demand as new stations are built, wherever and whenever they’re needed.

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This turns foundations from a site-by-site procurement exercise into a logistics operation: predictable, repeatable, and fast. Fastned, one of Europe’s leading rapid charging networks with over 380 stations across nine countries, has already adopted this model. We designed and manufactured 60 custom foundations for their charging stations, using 60% less material and reducing embodied CO2 by 40%. The design has since been standardised within Fastned’s internal deployment model, with units held in warehouse inventory and deployed on demand as new stations come online. Read the full Fastned case study

Where it applies across a charging site

The standardise-and-deploy approach works across the full range of concrete elements that charging infrastructure requires.

Charger pedestal bases are the most repeated element on any site, typically needing to accommodate specific bolt patterns and cable routing for different hardware manufacturers. Our design process customises each unit to exact specifications while maintaining automated production speed.

Canopy and shelter foundations support the roofed structures that are increasingly standard at premium hubs. These are where geometric optimisation delivers the biggest material savings, replacing the over-engineered solid blocks that traditional approaches default to.

Transformer and switchgear pads are among the heaviest concrete elements on a charging site. Lighter, optimised units simplify both delivery and installation.

Drawpits and cable ducting, at scale across a network, number in the hundreds or thousands. Highly repetitive and structurally straightforward, these are ideally suited to standardised offsite production.

For each of these, the proposition is the same: less material, less carbon, less weight, less programme time, and a standardised design that deploys across multiple sites without re-engineering every time.

The LEVI Fund and on-street rollout

The LEVI Fund presents a particular opportunity for this approach. Over 100,000 new chargepoints are being deployed by local authorities across England, primarily on-street in residential areas where residents lack driveways and off-street parking.

On-street installation demands foundations that are fast to install, low-disruption, and lightweight enough to minimise the scale of civil works needed. Lightweight, precast foundations that arrive ready to install – no curing, no formwork, smaller lifting requirements – directly address these constraints.

For CPOs winning LEVI contracts across multiple council areas, a standardised warehouse-ready model could significantly reduce per-site capex while accelerating delivery against funded timescales. Rather than procuring foundations site by site – with separate design, specification, and procurement costs each time – the operator maintains a supply of ready-to-deploy units that work across their entire portfolio. The standardisation itself drives cost reduction: one design process, one production setup, repeated across every site in the network.

Building green infrastructure on green foundations

There is something worth saying plainly. EV charging exists to decarbonise transport. The operators building these networks are in the business of reducing carbon emissions. Their investors, their customers, and their procurement frameworks increasingly reflect that.

Building green infrastructure on carbon-heavy concrete foundations is a contradiction the industry is starting to recognise. It will not be long before embodied carbon in charging infrastructure becomes a procurement criterion, just as it already has in energy, water, and data centre construction.

The operators and contractors who standardise low-carbon foundation solutions into their networks now will be better positioned when that shift comes. The question is whether to get ahead of it or wait until it becomes a requirement.

What next

If you’re building or expanding an EV charging network and want to understand how our foundation system could support faster, lower-carbon deployment, we’d welcome the conversation.

Tell us about your project.