Cobham Motorway Service Area HGV Parking Expansion

Cobham Motorway Service Area (MSA), located at Junction 10 of the M25, is one of the UK’s busiest motorway service stations. Since opening in 2012, it has operated as a single-site facility serving traffic in both directions, offering a wide range of amenities including restaurants, retail outlets, refreshment areas, gaming facilities, toilets, showers, and cash machines.

Due to its strategic location on the M25 motorway, Cobham MSA has experienced extremely high demand from heavy goods vehicles (HGVs). Over time, the existing HGV parking provision became insufficient, regularly exceeding capacity. This led to lorries parking on slip roads and access routes, creating congestion, operational inefficiencies, and serious road safety concerns for both HGV drivers and other road users.

The need for a scalable and sustainable HGV parking expansion solution became critical to improve traffic flow, safety, and overall service area functionality.

To resolve the HGV parking shortage at Cobham MSA, a tailored infrastructure solution was developed to deliver 79 additional HGV parking spaces. The new parking area was constructed to the west of the existing petrol filling station (PFS), optimising land use while maintaining efficient vehicle circulation within the motorway service area.

The scheme was designed to integrate seamlessly into the landscape, with the parking area set into the ground to reduce visual impact. A combination of gabion retaining walls and Gabion Terramesh® systems was used to stabilise the earthworks and create durable, cost-effective retaining structures.

Standard gabions were utilised for lower-height sections, while Gabion Terramesh® units were implemented for higher retaining walls, supporting value engineering and long-term performance. The project included approximately 300 metres of retaining wall reaching heights of up to 5.5 metres, along with an additional 100 metres of wall at 2 metres high.

To enhance environmental integration, the design incorporated earth modelling and tree planting, ensuring the expanded HGV parking area blended naturally with the surrounding landscape.

The project was delivered as a design, supply, and installation package by Maccaferri Construction, working in partnership with main contractor Breheny. Elliot Wood provided engineering design services on behalf of the client, Extra MSA Group.

This HGV parking expansion at Cobham Motorway Service Area successfully increased capacity, improved road safety, and reduced congestion, demonstrating the effectiveness of gabion retaining wall systems in motorway infrastructure projects.