Segmental Blockwork Retaining Wall System
2006
Burntisland, Scotland
Stewart Milne Homes
Stewart Milne Homes
Maccaferri
Stewart Milne Homes
MacWall® Landmark nearing end of construction
During Construction
Vertica Burntisland 2971
Close up of the MacWall® Landmark block system
Problem
A steeply sloping brown-field site, until recently a redundant bauxite processing plant, was acquired by Scottish developer, Stewart Milne Homes and will eventually provide 100 prestigious detached houses for the town of Burntisland in Fife.
Re-contouring the site to create level building pads for the new houses and to allow maximum use of the available land meant that retaining walls were required to form bold terraces up to 6.5m in height.
As one wall was required within 9.0m of the main A921 highway, the more conventional retaining wall solutions had to be rejected in favour of the Anchor Landmark retaining wall system. The Fife Council Transportation Services department required that the soil retaining structures comply with key performance criteria of strength, durability and long design life.
Solution
With such a high structure at the Stewart Milne Homes site, a proven system needed to be selected. Reassuringly, MacWall® Landmark Walls of over 20 metres in height have been constructed in the USA, where the technology was developed.
Most segmental retaining wall systems rely on the friction created by the weight of subsequent courses of concrete facing blocks to prevent the pullout of the geogrid. The geogrid itself is sandwiched between the blocks and laid out horizontally between the wall, binding with layers of compacted backfill to create a stable, mass, earth-retaining structure.
The Stewart Milne Homes development at Burntisland was the first significant MacWall® Landmark application in the UK mainland. Over 700m2 of the wall was installed in a single structure, 168m long and 6.5m high at its maximum. The system green credentials were also highlighted as exclusively site-won backfill was used to construct the wall, eliminating the need for almost 600 heavy vehicle journeys to and from the site.
Three additional MacWall® retaining walls totalling over 950m2 were built at the site using the company’s MacWall® Vertica system.