Reinforced soil and retaining wall systems strengthens BBGE offering
08 June 2010
Balfour Beatty Ground Engineering (BBGE) - leading ground engineering specialists and part of the Balfour Beatty group - recently used two of their newest systems (reinforced soil and crib retaining walling) simultaneously for a client in Nottinghamshire.
The project required the retaining and extending of an existing crumbling earth screening bund for an industrial production facility. BBGE developed, designed and constructed a complete solution to meet the exacting specifications of the client
The solution involved the use of a 12m long crib wall to retain the lower portion of an existing 6m high bund (i.e. in cut), with an additional 15m length of the BBGE grass faced reinforced soil system built consecutively (i.e. in fill) to lengthen the overall bund. The reinforced soil system was specified by virtue of its inherent ability to reuse “site won” fill material, taken from the excavation for the crib wall, resulting in no material having to be mucked away from site.
The excavation, construction and filling operations were all completed safely, within budget and ahead of schedule. The exceptionally fast construction times for these distinctive BBGE systems saw 100t of in-situ fill removed from the bund, stockpiled and reused (within the reinforced soil embankment), along with 40t of imported crushed yellow sandstone brought in to fill the crib wall – all in three and a half days.
Other than the reinstatement and stabilisation of the bund, the other main requirement from the client was that access was maintained for key factory plant along the roadway which sat at the toe of the embankment. The factory staff were regularly consulted/made aware of plant movement and programme throughout, which led to no disruption for the day to day working of the factory. In addition, at the request of the site Factory Manager, the BBGE site team undertook a few housekeeping and gardening duties by using a 13t 360° excavator on the remainder of the bund before demobilising from site.
Rob Samms, BBGE Business Development Manager, commented: ‘BBGE is committed to sustainable solutions and I am very pleased with the effectiveness of these two systems which were used on this project. Not only was a dig and dump scenario avoided by reusing the excavated soil, thereby eliminating costs associated with landfills, but the quicker than expected programme was a real benefit for the client’.
