Ground stabilisation for Heads of the Valleys road upgrade
A 106-km stretch of road known locally as the Heads of the Valleys links rural villages and towns to urban centres in Wales and beyond to the English Midlands. The Welsh governmentโs ยฃ800-million upgrading project is ambitious in scope: the three-lane road is being converted into a dual carriageway.
CAN, an RSK company, has worked as a subcontractor for Costain on the stretch of road from Brynmawr to Tredegar. To date, the geotechnical specialists have worked on more than 40 individual sites along the current phase of the road widening scheme and carried out an assortment of diverse ground stabilisation techniques. Because of the roadโs steep topography and the areaโs complex geology, the team of expert technicians had to use several different approaches to widening the road.
CAN ingenuity
As the new road route required frequent cutting into the mountainside, the road boundaries needed to be significantly steepened, which created inherent instability and the requirement for reinforcement. Consequently, CAN installed soil nails, gabions, rock bolts, sprayed concrete and catch fences, carried out bulk grouting and erected erosion matting and rockfall netting. When the road needed to be built outwards into Clydach Gorge, CAN stabilised the newly formed slope to stabilise the roadside.
The extremely variable ground conditions meant that numerous drilling methods were necessary. Because the roadside is progressively cut downwards, engineers used hydraulic drill rigs mounted to excavators to do most of the drilling working from benches cut successively further down. Where access was obstructed or where drilling was required to be carried out on cliffs, bespoke, A-frame, face-mounted drilling rigs were suspended at height from wire cables.
Public safety
Mindful that the site was active and the public needed to use the road, CAN installed several temporary works designs to ensure the safety of the workers and the public. This included a 230-m-long catch fence that prevented rockfall onto the live traffic lanes during part of the work. Wet weather produced small landslides frequently during the four years that CAN worked on-site, but the team acted quickly to stabilise the areas so that work could continue safely.
Number crunching
During the project, CAN pumped more than a million litres of grout and installed more than 36,000 m2 of rockfall netting and almost 11,000 soil nails and rock bolts, a total of 44 miles drilled.
- Location: England
- Project status: Complete
- Sector: Transport
- Service: Buildings and Structures Geotechnical Contracting and Engineering
Supporting the creation of a new garden village in Cheshire
View ProjectRepairing lightning damage on a wind turbine in Scotland
View ProjectHelping Singapore meet its future waste disposal needs
View ProjectDesigning and assessing an onshore wind farm in the Highlands of Scotland
View ProjectDesigning and assessing proposed windfarms in Scotland
View ProjectEnvironmental and social risk appraisal support for African โpower-to-xโ development
View ProjectConsulting on the construction of the Keppel Marina East Desalination Plant, Singapore
View ProjectBringing international best practice and process to phase 2 of Singaporeโs Deep Tunnel Sewerage System
View ProjectFacilitating renewable energy investments in Europe
View ProjectEnsuring shale gas projects for Poland and beyond
View ProjectProviding award-winning storm water solutions for urban flooding challenges
View ProjectUpgrading sewage treatment facilities to serve community needs in Hong Kong
View Project
๐ฎ 80% of all brownfield development sites in the UK are impacted with asbestos in the soil or made ground at some level.
๐Join us on this webinar that will outline some of the major issues involved in the control of asbestos in made ground in site development, the potential impacts on options appraisal and techniques that can be used to minimise issues arising from these.
๐ฆ๐ฝ๐ฒ๐ฎ๐ธ๐ฒ๐ฟ: Toby Gibbons, Operations Director of RSK Asbestos
๐ ๐ผ๐ฑ๐ฒ๐ฟ๐ฎ๐๐ผ๐ฟ: Melissa Fox, Managing Director of RSK Asbestos
Register now in our bio!
#RSKevents #asbestos #sitedevelopment #development #construction #engineering #brownfielddevelopment
๐ To respond to the ongoing climate crisis, we need more renewable energy.
๐ Recent global events have further highlighted the urgency of a smoother transition to net zero.
โ๏ธ In this edition of our series Climate Realities, RSK Renewable Energy Director Mike Kelly explores the opportunity for offshore wind to contribute significantly to the UKโs response to the climate crisis and national energy demand.
Read more in our bio!
#RSKGroup #climatechange #climatecrisis #sustainability #environment #environmental #renewables #renewableenergy
๐ธ #selfiesonsite ๐คณ
RSK Staff had an amazing time attending the Tameside Careers and Apprenticeship Exhibition!
Want to join our team? View our latest opportunities ๐ www.rskgroup.com/careers
#RSKgroup #behindthescenes #meettheteam #RSKfamily #RSKonsite #education #careers #careerfair #apprenticeship
#BikeChester was a success!
๐ It was a pleasure to sponsor this important community event close to our Chester, Helsby and Tattenhall offices.
๐ด Nearly 450 riders were part of this wonderful day in the Cheshire countryside and enjoyed our Tattenhall food stop.
Swipe to see some great pictures from this event!
#RSKGroup #RSKfamily #bike #cycling #carbonfootprint #workculture #sponsorship
๐ณ How can businesses improve their relationship with nature?
๐ Join Dr Rossa Donovan, Technical Director at Nature Positive, on a webinar that will explore how well the business community understands its dependencies and impacts on nature and how that translates into corporate strategies.
Find out more and register now in our bio!
#RSKEvents #RSKGroup #RSKfamily #nature #business #sustainability #environment #environmental
๐ธ #selfiesonsite ๐คณ
Jacques Carboni in Scotland visiting an exciting new site! ๐ด
Want to join our team? View our latest opportunities ๐ www.rskgroup.com/careers
#RSKgroup #behindthescenes #meettheteam #RSKfamily #RSKonsite #landscape #nature #careers
๐ข We are pleased to announce the addition of New South Wales-based integrated project management firm Projence to our rapidly growing Australian business
๐ค Projence will further grow our project management and commercial services capabilities within the region and expand our global portfolio of environmental, engineering and technical solutions businesses.
Find out more in our bio!
#RSKGroup #RSKfamily #projectmanagement #environmental #acquisition #business #engineering #technical
๐๐ฐ๐ฐ๐ถ๐ฑ๐ฒ๐ป๐๐ ๐ต๐ฎ๐ฝ๐ฝ๐ฒ๐ป, ๐ฏ๐๐ ๐ฑ๐ผ๐ปโ๐ ๐๐ผ๐ฟ๐ฟ๐, ๐๐ฐ๐ผ๐น๐ผ๐ด๐ถ๐ฎ ๐ถ๐ ๐ผ๐ป ๐ถ๐๐ ๐๐ฎ๐!
๐ฃ Ecologia, part of #RSKGroup, installed emergency aeration equipment at fishing lakes following an accidental loss of agricultural leachate.
๐ง Thanks to their amazing team, there was no further loss of fishing stock and oxygen levels and ammonia concentrations have been brought in line with pre-accident conditions.
๐ Ecologia has extensive expertise in dealing with emergency response for Controlled Waters impacted by hydrocarbon/chemical and agricultural spillage as they have proprietary equipment specifically designed to deal with this type of incident.
Find out more in our bio!
#RSKfamily #environment #environmental #emergencyresponse #spillage #contamination
๐ธ #selfiesonsite ๐คณ
RSK Tanzania has been out completing a reconnaissance field study for a proposed solar farm at Kilambo village in Iringa.
Want to join our team? View our latest opportunities ๐ www.rskgroup.com/careers
#RSKgroup #behindthescenes #meettheteam #RSKfamily #RSKonsite #construction #careers