AINLEY INDUSTRIAL ESTATE DEVELOPMENT

Royd Developments were developing part of the Ainley  Industrial Estate for a client. The client needed to create a new development platform to   enable a new warehouse and a lorry vehicle turning area to   be constructed. A conveyor bridge between an existing and   the new warehouse was also to be constructed on the site. Two large retaining walls were required; Phase 1: 126m long   and 7.4m high Phase 2: 58m long and 6m high It was quickly   identified that retaining walls with a near-vertical front face   would be the most efficient solution to allow the   development layout to meet the client's requirements.

Maccaferri provided support to the project team and  proposed the MacWall Landmark segmental reinforced soil   wall system. 

MacWall Landmark features an aesthetic ‘split face’   concrete block finish in conjunction with soil-reinforcing   geogrids, which are placed between layers of compacted   structural backfill. A column of free-draining stone is placed   directly behind the facing blocks. 

The blocks have a positive connection to the geogrids by   way of a ‘locking bar’ which secures the grids within a   receiving trough at the top of the concrete block. The next   course of concrete blocks has a down stand which engages   into the trough of the course below, preventing the locking   bar from moving. 

The structural backfill is a minimum of 6I/6J material and   fortunately, on this project, there was a supply of site-won   material of the appropriate condition to meet this   specification. Reusing this site won fill as structural backfill   dramatically reduced the amount of imported granular   materials and the associated transport and quarrying   financial and environmental costs. 

The foundation of the warehouse was piled to a depth below   the MacWall foundation and did not impose loads on the wall   structure. 

The conveyor supports also required a suitable foundation,   which were within the reinforced soil zone of the MacWall.   Maccaferri worked with the site teams to propose a suitable   layout for the geogrid soil reinforcement in the location of   the foundations which allowed them to be constructed, yet   not compromise the stability of the MacWall.