2021
Wolverhampton
Staffordshire Council
AFS Earthmoving & Aggregates
Amey Consulting
Reinforced Soil Retaining Wall Solution at i54 Wolverhampton Business Park
ParaLink basal reinforcement being installed
Mineral Terramesh bracing rods installed
Eastern side bund Mineral Terramesh reinforced soil retaining wall
Mineral Terramesh during construction – face detail
Mineral Terramesh structure reaching full height
Completed Mineral Terramesh structure
Challenge
The i54 development in Wolverhampton, South Staffordshire, is a 239-acre, high-profile UK technology business park located at Junction 2 of the M54 motorway. As part of a £67 million regeneration project launched in 2011 by a joint venture between Wolverhampton City Council, Staffordshire County Council, and South Staffordshire Council, the site has become a chief hub for advanced manufacturing, including the Jaguar Land Rover engine plant completed in 2014.
With demand for industrial and commercial space continuing to grow, maximising developable land became a key priority for stakeholders. A critical element of the infrastructure design was the construction of a 6-metre-high landscape bund. However, the available footprint for this bund was highly constrained, limited to just 23 metres in width.
Traditional earth bund construction methods, which rely on shallow, unreinforced slopes, were not viable within such tight spatial restrictions. These conventional solutions would have required a significantly larger footprint, reducing valuable industrial land and impacting the overall commercial viability of the development. This created a need for an innovative retaining wall solution capable of delivering steep slopes, structural stability, and efficient land use.
Solution
To overcome these challenges, Staffordshire County Council and engineering consultant Amey collaborated with Maccaferri in 2019 to develop a cost-effective and space-efficient solution. The result was a double-sided reinforced soil bund utilising the Mineral Terramesh® system, a proven engineered solution for reinforced soil retaining walls and steep slope applications.
The design incorporated two reinforced soil retaining structures on either side of a central core, enabling significantly steeper slope angles compared to traditional earthworks. On the western side, a 1.5-metre-high Mineral Terramesh® wall was constructed with an 80-degree slope, while the eastern side featured a 6-metre-high wall with a 70-degree slope face. This innovative configuration allowed the bund to achieve the required height while fitting within the restricted 23-metre footprint.
The central core of the bund was graded at crest slopes of 1:3 and 1:3.5, ensuring both stability and compliance with design requirements. This reinforced soil solution not only met the geometric constraints but also maximised usable land area for industrial development, directly supporting the commercial objectives of the i54 site.
Sustainability was also a key consideration. Site investigations identified significant quantities of sandstone rock that needed to be excavated. Instead of removing this material, Maccaferri proposed crushing it to meet Class 1A specification (Series 600, Specification for Highway Works) and reusing it as structural fill within the reinforced soil structure. This approach reduced waste, minimised material importation, and improved the overall environmental performance of the project.
Used Products
