Browsing articles in 'Industrial'
Reinforced soil and retaining wall systems strengthens BBGE offering
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’.
BBGE and URS pilot technique to clean up contaminated soil
Balfour Beatty Ground Engineering (BBGE) and URS start work next week on testing an innovative new technique to clean up an area of highly contaminated soil in Shawfield, part of the Clyde Gateway regeneration area in the East End of Glasgow and South Lanarkshire.
BBGE - leading ground engineering specialists and part of the Balfour Beatty group - has been appointed by engineering and environmental consultants, the URS Corporation, to conduct the trial. URS is developing a remediation strategy for Shawfield on behalf of the Clyde Gateway Urban Regeneration Company, a multi-million pound partnership over a 20-year period involving Glasgow City Council, South Lanarkshire Council and Scottish Enterprise, with funding from the Scottish Government.
The project will test the use of calcium polysulfide, a chemical from the agricultural industry, as a way of remediating land contaminated with Chromite Ore Processing Residue (COPR), a common problem found in many former industrial locations around the world.
The residue contains the highly toxic chromium Cr(VI). Traditional methods of remediating Cr(VI) contaminated land have had limited success in converting the chemical to the less harmful Cr(III). If successful, the BBGE trial could have significant implications for the remediation of Cr(VI) contaminated land worldwide. The project is being closely observed by the environmental think-tank CL:AIRE.*
BBGE’s, Ian Gatenby, said:
“BBGE companies have a long history of developing cutting edge ground engineering solutions and this latest project is no exception. It is exciting that through innovation we can combine an agrochemical with a proven technique from the ground engineering industry and develop a bespoke solution to a very complex remediation problem. As far as I am aware this is the first time this method has been trialled in the UK and it has huge potential for our industry if it goes well. We are all looking forward to seeing the results.”
BBGE’s ground improvement company, Pennine, will carry out the test on the Shawfield site. Using a modified Wolton rotary rig, the Pennine team will bore ten metres deep into the ground and simultaneously inject and mix the calcium polysulfide within a representative test area of contaminated soil. URS will take before and after samples from the soil and Pennine will sample theground water as part of the project’s evaluation.
* CL:AIRE – Contaminated Land: Applications in Real Environments
