Mass Gravity Retaining Walls
2007
Swansea, Wales
Private
Celtic Home & Builders Ltd
Maccaferri Ltd
Hoel Pentre Felin, Lllangy Fellach
During construction and initial stage of constructing the MacWall
During Construction
Post construction of MacWall
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Problem
The Client wished to develop a sloping site in West Wales to accommodate new and exclusive housing. Numerous configurations of houses were considered before it was decided to create a series of terraces onto which the new houses would be built. Three parallel retaining walls, up to a maximum of 3.5m high, were required to run the length of the site. Gentle curves in the walls would also provide a feature and interest to future homeowners. To embrace the sustainability of scarce resources and to reduce the import and export of site materials, an optimum solution would be to reuse site-won material. A ‘materials balance’ for the project site was a target.
Solution
Maccaferri was approached by George Brown Consultancy to offer alternative retaining structure solutions to meet the client’s brief and budget. The wall had to be aesthetically pleasing as it would form boundaries to many of the houses. Ultimately, MacWall Diamond was selected as the most appropriate retaining wall. This is a segmental concrete blockwork system that features a ‘split-face’ finish and the Basalt colour that was chosen blended well with local surroundings.
MacWall Diamond consists of pre-cast concrete block-facing units in combination with polymeric geogrid soil reinforcement. The geogrids are sandwiched between courses of the concrete facing blocks and extend horizontally towards the slope to be retained. Structural backfill is then compacted upon the geogrids. This reinforced soil block acts to retain the terraces and roads above it.